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COPYRIGHT DEPOSFR 



WHAT'S WHAT IN THE 
LABOR MOVEMENT 



Make for thyself a definition or description of 
the thing which is presented to thee, so as to see 
distinctly what kind of a thing it is, in its sub- 
stance, in its nudity, in its complete entirety, and 
tell thyself its proper name, and the names of the 
things of which it has been compounded, and into 
which it will be resolved. For nothing is so pro- 
ductive of elevation of mind as to be able to ex- 
amine methodically and truly every object which 
is presented to thee in life, and always to look at 
things so as to see at the same time what kind of 
universe this is, and what kind of use everything 
performs in it, and what value everything has 
with reference to the whole, and what with refer- 
ence to man, who is a citizen of the highest city, 
of which all other cities are like families; what 
each thing is, and of what it is composed, and 
how long it is the nature of this thing to endure. 

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. 



WHAT'S WHAT IN 
THE LABOR MOVEMENT 



A Dictionary of Labor Affairs 
and Labor Terminology 



Compiled by 

WALDO R. BROWNE 




NEW YORK 
B. W. HUEBSCH, Inc. 

1921 



HT^ 






Copyright, 192 1, by 
B. W. HUEBSCH. Inc. 



DEC -8 1921 



PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. 



CI.A630655 



PREFACE 

**'T^HIS that they call 'Organizing of Labour* is, if well under- 
1 stood, the Problem of the whole Future,, for all who will in 
future govern men." It is well over three-quarters of a century since 
Carlyle set down these words in "Past and Present," but the inter- 
vening years have deepened rather than dulled their truth. Those 
years, indeed, cover the main story of the ** organizing of labor" 
to the present day; and the "blind irrational giant" of Carlyle's time 
has become, if not wholly "a seeing rational giant, with a soul in 
the body of him," at least a coherent and powerful and momentous 
influence in nearly every phase of public affairs — an influence which, 
more than any other, is slowly but inevitably reshaping modem 
civilization. 

Whatever our individual attitude toward the Labor Movement 
may be, whether we regard it as a salvation or a menace, it is impera- 
tive that we should at least understand it. And yet one might say 
with truth that no other large force or factor of these times is less 
commonly understood — or, worse still, is more commonly misunder- 
stood. At the bottom of much, perhaps most, of the heated argu- 
ment and conflict of views in regard to "labor" there is an amazing 
lack both of common knowledge regarding elementary facts and 
theories and of common agreement regarding elementary definitions. 
Here, as in other fields, men quarrel not so much over actualities 
as over mere words — words to which they have attached a variety 
of arbitrary and opposing ideas, for the most part utterly unrelated 
to facts. They are like persons attempting- to communicate with 
one another in a language of which each has invented his own 
alphabet. 

There are many and various reasons for this deplorable condition, 
but by no means the least is the fact that there has hitherto been 
available no popular comprehensive handbook to the Labor Move- 
ment as a whole — one which describes and explains that movement 
in all its parts; which outlines the theories that animate it, the 

[v] 



policies that guide it, the purposes that it has in view; and which 
defines the principal terms associated with it. The existing ency- 
clopaedias and dictionaries are notoriously deficient in their treatment 
of labor affairs, and most of the innumerable books on one or another 
phase of the general subject take for granted in their readers pre- 
cisely that broad background of elementary information of which 
the average person stands most in need. 

The present volume aims to fill this most conspicuous gap among 
current reference books, and to provide a convenient and concise 
vade mecum to the subject which will be permanently valuable to 
the individual employer and trade unionist as well as to the general 
reader, and which will prove of daily service not only in public 
libraries and newspaper offices but among the necessary reference 
equipment of industrial organizations of every sort — employers' 
associations, chambers of commerce, civic federations, trade union 
"centrals," etc. The attempt to compress so vast and protean 
and kaleidoscopic a subject within the covers of a single moderately- 
sized volume will seem to many a rash undertaking. But the in- 
sistent need for such a work will, it is hoped, be considered a sufficient 
justification for the present attempt. 

While some of the material contained in this volume has of 
necessity been gleaned from the current newspaper and periodical 
press, the compiler has for the most part depended upon the standard 
literature of the subject, and upon official governmental reports 
and similar documents. In the American field, liberal use has been 
made of the exhaustive report on "Labor Organizations, Labor 
Disputes and Arbitration," prepared by Messrs. Charles E. Edger- 
ton and E. Dana Durand for the Federal Industrial Commission, 
and published in Volume XVII of the Report of that body. A num- 
ber of the entries on trade unionism and the legal aspects of labor 
affairs in the United States are in large part either quoted or para- 
phrased from that work. The "Monthly Labor Review," published 
by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the United States Department 
of Labor, has also been a very valuable source of information. In 
view of the comparative frequency with which the "Staff Report" 
of the Federal Commission on Industrial Relations is quoted in these 
pages, it may be well to recall that in this Report, according to the 
chairman of the Commission, "no statement or conclusion of fact 
adverse to the attitude or interest of any person or group of persons 
is submitted, except as declared or assented to by the person or by 
the individuals comprising the group affected." 

fvi] 



While limitations of space make it impossible to give a complete 
list of the many other publications consulted and utilized by the 
compiler, mention must at least be made of the following, which 
have proved particularly useful: 

Adams, Thomas Sewall, and Sumner, Helen L. "Labor Problems." 
New York: The Macmillan Company. 

Beard, Mary. "A Short History of the American Labor Movement." 
New York: Harcourt, Brace 8c Co. 

Carlton, Frank Tracy. "The History and Problems of Organized 
Labor." Boston: D. C. Heath & Co. 

Carlton, Frank Tracy. "Organized Labor in American History." 
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 

Clay, Henry. "Economics: An Introduction for the General Reader." 
New York: The Macmillan Company. 

Cole, G. D. H. "An Introduction to Trade Unionism." London: 
Labour Research Department. 

Cole, G. D. H. "Labour in the Commonwealth: A Book for the Yoimger 
Generation." New York: B. W. Huebsch, Inc. 

Cole, G. D. H. "The Payment of Wages." London: Labour Research 
Department. 

Cole, G. D. H. "The World of Labour: A Discussion of the Present 
and Future of Trade Unionism." Fourth edition. London: G. Bell & Sons. 

Commons, John R. (editor). "Trade Unionism and Labor Problems." 
Boston: Ginn & Company. 

Commons, John R., and Andrews, John B. "The Principles of Labor 
Legislation." Fourth edition, revised. New York: Harper & Brothers. 

Dutt, R. Palme (editor). "The Labour International Handbook." 
London: Laboiir Publishing Co. 

Glocker, Theodore W. "The Government of American Trade Unions." 
Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press. 

Groat, George Gorham. "An Introduction to the Study of Organized 
Labor in America." New York: The Macmillan Company. 

Hillquit, Morris. "Socialism in Theory and Practice." New York: 
The Macmillan Company. 

Hollander, Jacob H., and Bamett, George E. (editors). "Studies in 
American Trade Unionism." New York: Henry Holt & Co. 

Hoxie, Robert Franklin. "Trade Unionism in the United States." New 
York: D. Appleton & Co. 

Janes, George Milton. "The Control of Strikes in American Trade 
Unions." Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press. 

Lloyd, C. M. "Trade Unionism." London: A. & C. Black. 

[vii] 



O'Brien, George. "Labour Organization." London : Methuen & Co., Ltd. 

Parker, Carleton H. ''The Casual Laborer, and Other Essays." New 
York: Harcourt, Brace & Co. 

Rubinow, L M. "Social Insurance." New York: Henry Holt & Co. 

Russell, Bertrand. "Proposed Roads to Freedom." New York: Henry 
Holt & Co. 

Sanders, Wm. Stephen. "Trade Unionism in Germany." London: 
Labour Research Department. 

Spedden, Ernest R. "The Trade Union Label." Baltimore: The 
Johns Hopkins Press. 

Tead, Ordway, and Metcalf, Henry C. "Personnel Administration: 
Its Principles and Practice." New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co. 

Webb, Sidney and Beatrice. "Industrial Democracy." London and 
New York: Longmans, Green & Co. 

Webb, Sidney and Beatrice. "The History of Trade Unionism." Re- 
vised edition, extended to 1920. London and New York: Longmans, Green 
&Co. 

Weyforth, William 0. "The Organizability of Labor." Baltimore: 
The Johns Hopkins Press. 

To the authors and publishers of the above-mentioned books, 
many of whom have allowed a generous use of copyrighted extracts, 
the compiler is under a heavy debt of gratitude. Thanks are also 
due on similar grounds to "The New Republic," **The Freeman," 
and Professor Ernst Freund. For individual assistance generously 
given by many persons during the preparation of this book, the com- 
piler can offer only a collective word of acknowledgment — save in 
one important instance. Without the devoted and unremitting 
collaboration of his wife, whose contribution to this task is scarcely 
less than his own, the book would never have been carried through 
to completion. 



WHAT'S WHAT IN THE 
LABOR MOVEMENT 



EXPLANATORY NOTE 

Throughout the following pages the use of 
SMALL CAPITALS in the body of a paragraph 
indicates that the term thus emphasized is 
separately dealt with elsewhere in the book, 
in its regular alphabetical order. This plan 
of denoting cross references as they occur in 
the text is not, however, followed in the case 
of such constantly recurring terms as "trade 
union," "labor movement," etc. Where a 
cross reference is indicated by the use of 
SMALL CAPITALS in the body of an entry, 
it is not as a rule repeated among the cross 
references given at the close of the entry. 



WHAT'S WHAT IN THE 
LABOR MOVEMENT 



A 



A. D. G. B. See Allgemeiner Deutscher Gewerkschafts- 

BUND. 

A. F. of L. See American Federation of Labor. 

A. W. O. See Agricultural Workers' Organization. 

A. W. U. See Australian Workers' Union. 

Abnormal Place. In British coal-mining, a position in the mine 
where, owing to especial difficulties presented by the conformation 
of the coal seam, the miner is unable in a given time to extract the 
amount of coal necessary to secure the average, or something like 
the average, piece work earnings. In nearly all wage scales in the 
coal-mining industry, the complications presented by the "abnormal 
place" are duly provided for. (See Consideration Miners.) 

Absentee Capitalism. The modem capitalistic system is 
often so called, because of the widespread extent to which income is 
derived from industrial enterprises by investors, or stockholders, 
who have no direct relations in the way of management or super- 
vision with the enterprises from which they derive their income. 
This situation has a very definite and important bearing upon labor 
conditions and industrial relations. "Stocks are bought either as a 
speculation or as an investment, and in case either the physical 
property deteriorates or the productive organization tends to become 
inefficient, the well-informed stockholder generally takes no steps to 
correct the condition, but merely throws his stock upon the market. 



This marks a very real and definite distinction from the actual 
ownership of a property or business which must be kept in good 
condition by its owner as regards both plant and organization. If 
all industries were owned and operated by individuals, there might 
be some reason to hope that generally satisfactory wages and phy- 
sical conditions might be attained through the education of the 
owner to a realization that permanent success depended absolutely 
upon the maintenance of the plant in the best condition and the 
permanent satisfaction of the legitimate demands of the workers, but 
with the impersonal, remote and irresponsible status of control by 
stock ownership, such a hope must be purely illusory. The ordinary 
stockholder in a large corporation actually occupies a less direct 
relationship to the corporation in which he is interested, has less 
knowledge of its actual operations, and less control over its manage- 
ment, than the ordinary citizen has over local, state and national 
governments." (See Corporation.) 

Absentee Committee. See Timekeeping Committee. 

Absenteeism. In a labor sense, this term has reference to the 
practice or habit, on the part of individual employees, of being 
temporarily absent from work. As a fairly constant factor in indus- 
try, absenteeism makes for lowered plant efficiency and decreased 
production; while it involves a huge annual loss of wages to the 
workers. (See Clocking.) 

Academic Socialism. See Socialists of the Chair. 

Accessions. See Mobility of Labor. 

Accident Benefits. See Disability Benefits. 

Accident-Reporting Laws. Legislation requiring an employer 
of labor to file with the proper public authorities, within a specified 
time, detailed information regarding any industrial accident that 
may occur in his establishment. Compulsory accident reporting is 
a necessary part of any system of workmen's compensation. In 
the case of occupational diseases, a similar reporting duty usually 
falls upon the physician. 

Accord System. As found in some parts of Germany, this is 
a system of convict labor which corresponds to what is known in 
America as the piece price system. 

AdamsonLaw. In September, 1916, the demands of the rail- 
way brotherhoods for the basic eight-hour day were about to cul- 

[2] 



minate in a strike of national proportions, when President Wilson asked 
Congress for legislation to meet the situation and to remedy the 
obvious failure of the Newlands Act in providing for settlement of 
railway wage disputes. The result of this request was the passage 
of a measure known as the Adamson Law, which specified that after 
January i, 191 7, ''eight hours shall, in contracts for labor and 
service, be deemed a day's work and the measure or standard of a 
day's work for the purpose of reckoning the compensation" of rail- 
road trainmen. Provision was also made for a Federal Eight-Hour 
Commission, to study and report upon the workings of the act. 
This Commission reported inconclusively shortly after the railroads 
were taken over by the government for the period of the war. The 
Adamson Law was declared constitutional by the Supreme Court 
in the spring of 19 17. 

Adjustment Board. Ordinarily, either a board set up by a 
trade union, for the settlement of internal union disputes, or a joint 
board of employers and workers set up to deal with grievances. 

Administrative Orders. With specific reference to state 
INDUSTRIAL COMMISSIONS, thcsc are orders or rules issued by, or under 
the authority of, such a commission, in its work of enforcing and 
interpreting the state laws relating to industrial matters. Such 
orders are commonly of two kinds: (i) General orders, applying 
to all establishments or all persons of the same class throughout the 
state; and (2) special orders, applying to a single establishment or 
person. While provision is made for appeal from such orders in a 
prescribed form and process, they have generally the binding force 
of legislative enactments. 

Admission to the Trade. See Apprenticeship. 

Admittance to the Trade Union. Aside from the various 
trade union rules regarding qualifications for membership, some of 
which are noted in the entry Restriction of Numbers, the method 
by which qualified persons enter a trade union is described in the 
following summary from the Federal Industrial Commission's 
Report: ''A few national unions provide for admission to member- 
ship on application to the national officers, *if the applicant lives 
outside the jurisdiction of any local union. Those who join in 
organizing a new local are almost necessarily admitted by action 
of the national officers. In all unions, however, the regular mode 
of entrance is by vote of a local. In many cases a written applica- 
tion is required, endorsed by two members in good standing. 

13] 



Such an application, when it is required, is usually referred to a 
[membership] committee, and the committee is often forbidden to 
report at the same meeting at which the application is presented. 
Whatever the preliminaries may be, the admission of the candidate 
depends upon the vote of the members. Often the vote is required 
to be taken by ball ballot; but many unions leave the method to 
the option of the locals, and a few require an open vote. In many a 
majority is sufficient to admit a candidate, and in many others 
the required majority is two-thirds. In several, two, three, or five 
black balls work exclusion. In a large proportion of these, however, 
those who cast the black balls are required, either in all cases or 
when they do not exceed a certain number, to give their reasons. 
Sometimes the reasons are presented in writing, and the names of 
the objectors are not known except to the president. If no reasons 
are given, it is usual to declare the candidate elected. If reasons 
are presented, a new vote is taken; in many unions a two-thirds 
majority is then sufficient to admit. . . . Some sort of pledge of faith- 
fulness to the union is always administered. . . . Obligations of a more 
general character, relating to moral and social duties, are sometimes 
added. The pledge is not usually made binding by oath, but simply 
by a promise upon honor." (See Examining Board.) 

Adventurer. See Entrepreneur. 

Advisory Councils. As found in some of the larger British 
trade unions, whose membership extends throughout the United 
Kingdom, these are delegate bodies representative of all branches 
in Scotland or in Ireland. Although such councils have no execu- 
tive power, they occupy an important place in British trade union 
structure, inasmuch as their recommendations may influence the 
central executive in determining policy within the area repre- 
sented by an advisory council. 

Afa. See Angestellten. 

Affiliation. In labor terminology, the name for a limited con- 
nection between one trade union and another, or between one imion 
and a group of unions, or between a group of workers and a central 
association of any sort. It usually implies the payment of a joint 
fee or tax and the readiness for joint action; but it is not adopted 
when the connection is already so close that the respective bodies 
are integral parts of the same unit. A local may be affiliated with 
the city central of its locality, but it is a constituent part of its 
national union, which in turn is usually affiliated with the American 

[4] ' 



Federation of Labor. Affiliation, in the trade union sense, is 
generally synonymous with federation; although, on the other 
hand, it may denote a connection for which the term *' federation" 
would be inappropriate. 

Agent Provocateur. In connection with American labor 
affairs, a secret agent who poses as a workingman or ultra-radical 
and endeavors to stir up factional strife within a labor organization 
or between different labor elements; or who endeavors to incite 
workingmen to make rash statements or take violent action, so as 
to render them liable to criminal prosecution or to discredit them 
and their organizations before public opinion. The agent provoca- 
teur is an important factor in creating that atmosphere of mutual 
suspicion upon which the system of espionage in industry so 
largely thrives. (See Under-Cover Men; Plant.) 

Agitator. While this term is applicable to any one in any 
field who agitates or urges any specific reform or course of action, 
it is most commonly used in opprobrious designation of working- 
class leaders who are charged with inciting their followers to rash 
or hasty or ** radical" action. "In particular, it is frequently alleged 
by employers and others that many, if not perhaps most, strikes 
are due, not so much to the general desire of the body of the work- 
ingmen to better their conditions, as to the influence of a few ex- 
tremists. There are many professional agitators, it is claimed, who 
have altogether exaggerated and erroneous ideas regarding the rights 
of the working classes and the injustice of existing conditions; or 
who perchance hope to secure a purely selfish advantage, whether 
notoriety or some pecuniary gain, through fomenting labor disputes. 
So-called walking delegates are especially often criticised for 
their part in promoting strikes." There is some measure of truth in 
these assertions, especially as they relate to the building trades; 
but, in general, the influence of "agitators" in the labor m.ovement 
is immensely exaggerated. It is the common testimony of those 
who have impartially studied trade unionism that labor leaders are 
as a rule far more conservative than the rank and file unionists. 
Moreover, in all but a very few unions, strikes can only be inaugu- 
rated after a m.ajority (frequently two-thirds or three-fourths) of 
all the members have endorsed the proposal by secret ballot. Offi- 
cers and BUSINESS agents doubtless often exercise great influence 
in bringing propositions for strikes before their organizations, and 
in persuading the members how they shall vote — which is equally 
true of all human organizations; but they have no dictatorial power. 

1 [5] 



The saying of a great Englishman, Sir Charles Napier, that "the 
only real agitator is injustice" holds at least as true in the labor 
movement as in any other field. 

Agrarianism. The principle or theory of an equal division 
of land; or, more generally, any theory involving radical changes 
in the tenure of land. Also, the movement or agitation in behalf 
of such theories. Agrarianism played a somewhat prominent part 
in the early American labor movement. The original agrarians, 
those among the New York workingmen, held that both land and 
capital should be equally divided among the entire population; 
but the later movement, beginning about 1840, had reference only 
to land. The agrarian agitation was largely instnmiental in shaping 
the "free soil" movement of the middle 19th century, the homestead 
movement, and the single tax movement under Henry George's 
leadership. (See Land Question.) 

Agreement System. A term commonly applied to the plan 
by which the terms and conditions of labor in an industry as a whole 
or in one department of an industry are formulated in a written 
agreement, resulting as a rule from formal negotiations between 
organizations of employers and employees. Such agreements may 
be either national, district, or local in scope. "While the existence of a 
written agreement does not always imply that collective bar- 
gaining has been developed to a higher degree than in cases where 
no such agreements are adopted, it is nevertheless true that usually 
where the practice of collective bargaining has been most thoroughly 
and successfully worked out, the results of the bargain are set forth 
in written agreements. Many of these written agreements also pro- 
vide for the arbitration of minor disputes arising regarding the 
interpretation of their terms. The methods by which written agree- 
ments are adopted, their contents, and their bearing upon the rela- 
tions of employers and employees, vary greatly in different cases. 
The reference of particular disputes to arbitration is not uncommon 
even where systematic collective bargaining and written agreements 
do not exist. ' ' (See Joint Conference System ; Trade Agreement.) 

Agricultural Cooperation. That form of cooperation which 
consists in the formation of buying and selling organizations among 
farmers, by means of which farm supplies are bought at wholesale, 
expensive machinery or breeding stock is held and used in common, 
credit unions are formed, and various agricultural products are 
marketed by joint effort. 

[6] 



Agricultural Labor. In respect of the total number of work- 
ers engaged, agriculture probably outranks any other industry in 
this and other large countries. Agricultural labor may be divided 
into three main classes: (i) That furnished by the occupier's family; 
(2) hired labor domiciled on the farm or adjacent to it; (3) that 
floating or migratory contingent which year by year seems to become 
a larger feature in the farm labor supply of Europe and the United 
States. Although special phases of farm enterprise have developed 
new and increasing demands for skilled workers, farm labor is for 
the most part unskilled labor, a considerable portion of which con- 
sists of children, women, negroes (in the southern United States), 
and coolies (in the western United States). It is a field in which 
long hours, low wages, and casual labor are almost universal. 
The seasonal nature of the industry makes the task of adjusting 
the supply of agricultural labor to the demand one of the most intri- 
cate and difficult problems of American industry. Whether the 
lack of organization among farm laborers is a cause or an effect of 
their comparatively low economic status, it is nevertheless true that 
trade unionism has as yet made little headway in the agricultural 
industry. The I. W. W. has had some success in organizing the casual 
and migratory harvest hands of the West, but beyond this there is 
little if any industrial organization of farm workers in the United 
States. Hoxie's standard work on American trade unionism does 
not even mention the subject. In Europe, however, though organi- 
zation in the agricultural field is still comparatively backward, 
there are strong national unions of farm workers in several countries. 
The movement towards trade unionism among British agricultural 
workers is advancing rapidly, the total nimiber of those organized 
being now over 300,000 — or about one-third of all the male wage- 
earners in agriculture. (See Labor Outings; Negro Labor; 
Agricultural Workers' Organization; Metayage; Cropper; 
Product Sharing.) 

Agricultural Workers' Organization. The most energetic 
and numerous section of the Industrial Workers op the World, 
consisting of farm laborers and harvest hands, was organized under 
this name in April, 1915. The "A. W. O.," as it is usually called, 
has its headquarters in Minneapolis, and is strongest in the Middle 
West and Northwest. 

Akademie der Arbeit. This, the first ''university of labor" to 
be established an5rwhere in the world under government auspices — • 
was opened in June, 192 1, at Frankfort-on-the-Main. Its sponsors 

17]. 



are the Prussian Ministers of Education and Finance, and the mu- 
nicipal and university authorities of Frankfort; and its purpose is 
to promote among existing and potential labor leaders a scientific 
knowledge of economic and industrial relations. Some seventy stu- 
dents — ^mostly trade union officials — were enrolled for the first session. 

Alien Contract Labor Laws. See Contract Labor. 

All -China Federation of Trade Unions. See Chinese 
Labor Organizations. 

All Grades Movement. Refers to the effort of British railway 
workers to secure better wages and working conditions by concerted 
national action, beginning in 1897. Before that year, their efforts 
had been local or sectional, and nearly always in the interests of 
particular grades or classes of workers. In 1897, for the first time, 
all the railway companies were approached simultaneously, with a 
request for improvements in all grades from one end of the service 
to the other. This movement did much to bring the various unions 
of railway workers together, resulting in the merging, in 19 13, of 
most of the principal unions in a single organization — the National 
Union of Railwaymen, now one of the largest and strongest labor 
bodies in Great Britain, and a member of the Triple Alliance. 
(See Employmental Unionism ; New Model of Trade Unionism.) 

All -India Trades Union Congress. This, the first formal 
conference of labor representatives from all parts of India, was held 
at Bombay in October, 1920, with delegates from forty associations 
in attendance. Resolutions were adopted nominating a standing 
committee of sixty members to manage the affairs of the Congress 
and to provide permanent machinery for the collection of informa- 
tion relating to trade unions, to help labor organizations by advice, 
and otherwise to further the cause of the workers of India, until 
the second session of the Congress should be held. Arrangements 
were also made for drawing up a permanent constitution, and for 
securing funds to maintain a permanent central office in Bombay. 
(See India, Labor Organization in.) 

All -Russia Professional Alliances. See Trade Unions in 
Russia. 

All-Russian Council of Professional Alliances. A body 

which forms the apex of trade unionism in Russia. As originally 
constituted, it was made up of eleven members elected by the annual 
Trade Union Congress, together with representatives from each of 

[8] 



the national trade unions ("professional alliances") — on the basis 
of one representative for each 50,000 members. The Council must 
meet once a month. It works in direct association with the Soviet 
government, being coordinated with the People's Commissariat 
OF Labor as far as conditions of labor are concerned, and with the 
Supreme Council of Public Economy on the side of industrial 
production, distribution, and consumption. It seems to have an 
effective share in the framing of labor legislation, and collaborates 
with the national trade unions in organization and propaganda 
work. It is supported by a monthly per capita tax on all trade 
unionists. 

All -Russian Insurance Centre. See Social Insurance 
IN Russia. 

Allen -Flood Case. See Exclusion Policy"7 of Trade 
Unionism, 

Allgemeine Arbeiter -Union (General Workers' Union). The 
central organization of communist workers in Germany. It acts 
in close cooperation with the Communist Labor Party, formed in 
April, 1920; and bitterly opposes the *'free" or Social Democratic 
unions. The constituent units of the General Workers' Union are 
mainly works organizations. Its membership is said to be about 
10,000. 

Allgemeiner Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (General Ger- 
man Trade Union Federation). Until 19 19 the central national 
organization of the Zentralverbande or national Social Demo- 
cratic UNIONS in [Germany was termed the Generalkommission 
der Gewerkschaften — a] standing committee the members of which 
were elected by delegates of the national unions who met every 
three years as a Trade Union Congress. The Commission was 
financed by an annual contribution of about four cents from each 
member of each affiliated union, and it reported at least once every 
three months to a Council consisting of one member from each 
of the Zentralverbande, Its duties were to carry on the work of 
general trade union agitation, and to issue statistics concerning the 
trade union world generally. From its office in Berlin it published a 
weekly paper, prepared material relating to social legislation for 
the use of labor representatives in political bodies, and performed 
various other functions of importance in the trade union movement. 
A trade union school in Berlin, similar in kind to Ruskin College 
but supported and managed entirely by trade unionists, was under 

[9] 



its control. At its 19 19 session, the German Trade Union Congress 
resolved to bind the national unions more closely and effectually 
together by creating a national federation, styled the Allgemeiner 
Deutscher Gewerkschaftshund — popularly known as the A. D. G. B. 
The main general objects of this organization are: (i) Furthering 
trade union propaganda by the collection and utilization of socio- 
political material and trade union statistics, and by the issue of 
pamphlets; (2) fostering the protection of the working classes by 
the retention of counsel in legal cases and by managing the election 
of socio-political representatives of the workers; (3) the arrangement 
of cotu-ses in trade unionism, the delimitation of spheres of organi- 
zation and agitation of the unions, the management of exceptional 
conflicts, and the ftu-thering of international relations with the 
unions of other countries. In general the functions of the old General- 
kommission will be continued by a directorate of fifteen members, 
of whom seven are salaried officials; this directorate is assisted by 
an advisory council composed of one representative of each affiliated 
national union — usually the president. Every third year the direc- 
torate must convene a Trade Union Congress. The method of 
election of delegates to the Congress is left to each affiliated union, 
the number they are allowed to send being one delegate for every 
10,000 members. The Congress elects an Executive (V or stand) 
of fifteen members, which reports to a Council (Ausschus) consist- 
ing of one representative from the executive of each affiliated union, 
which meets as occasion requires but not less often than half-yearly. 
Special congresses may be convened, if necessary, on resolution of 
the advisory council or on motion of at least one-half of the adhering 
unions. If a union is unable to continue with its own means a wage 
movement commenced by it the Federation shall, after approval by 
the directorate, grant strike benefits to that union. The funds re- 
quired for this aid are to be had by assessments against all the 
affiliated unions. Some fifty-two national unions, with a total mem- 
bership of about eight and a half million workers, are now federated 
in this organization. (See Arbeitersekretariat; Gewerkschaft- 
hauser; Angestellten.) 

Alliance of Labor. See New Zealand Labor Movement. 

Allied Printing Trades Councils. Delegate bodies repre- 
sentative of various separately-organized printing trade workers 
(typesetters, pressmen, stereotypers and electrotypers, book-binders, 
and photo-engravers), set up in localities where there are local 
branches of at least two of the national unions involved. Such a 

[10] 



council is composed of three workers from each local union of the 
different trades, and is governed by officers of its own election. 
One of its principal purposes is to administer the allied printing 
trades label placed on printing jointly produced by the unions 
which are members of the council. All local branches of the national 
organizations involved must withdraw their individual labels as 
soon as an allied council is formed. Appeals from the decisions of 
the local councils in regard to the label and other matters are heard 
by a national joint conference board, composed of representatives 
of the national unions in the printing trades which are party to 
the agreement. (See Trades Council — American; Printing 
Trades International Joint Conference Council.) 

Allied Printing Trades Label. See Allied Printing Trades 
Councils. 

Allied Trades Council. See Trades Council — American. 

Allocation of Work. The distribution among the workers 
in a given group of particular pieces of work or working places. 
*'The question is of some importance in many piece-work trades, 
and there is much complaint among the miners and others that 
favoritism in assigning working places and jobs is used as a covert 
method of victimization." (See Clicking System.) 

Amalgamation. In trade union terminology, the merging of 
two or more unions into one integral body, with a single constitution, 
set of officers, plan of action, etc. Such bodies are commonly known 
as "amalgamated societies," "amalgamated associations," etc. 
Amalgamation may be merely a fusion of two or more rival organiza- 
tions following the same craft or occupation, in which case the result- 
ing "amalgamated society" still remains a craft union. Or it may 
be a fusion of two or more craft unions in different occupations of 
the same industry, the result being an industrial union. Amal- 
gamation has been most highly developed in the German trade 
union movement, where it has done much to solve the problem of 
JURISDICTION and to minimize other evils of sectionalism, while 
immensely strengthening the bargaining power and fighting resources 
of German labor. The process of amalgamation is hindered by many 
difficulties — legal, financial, official, and psychological. Neverthe- 
less, the movement toward amalgamation has made tremendous 
progress of late in the trade union world, and is likely to be one of 
the most marked developments of the future. Amalgamation should 
be carefully differentiated from federation and affiliation, the 



latter being merely forms of common association rather than of 
fusion or merging. (See Mals; Compound Craft Union; Trade 
Union Amalgamation Act.) 

American Association for Labor Legislation. See Inter- 
national Association for Labor Legislation; Labor Legis- 
lation; Labor Press. 

American Federation of Labor. This, the leading labor 
body of America, came into existence in 1881, under the name of 
*' Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions." It was re- 
organized and given its present title in 1886. The main constituent 
units of the A. F. of L. (as it is commonly called) are well over a 
hundred national or international unions, mainly of the craft 
type, which retain almost complete autonomy within the Federa- 
tion. In addition to these, a considerable number of local bodies 
known as federal labor unions and local trade unions are 
directly affiliated with the A. F. of L. The membership of the 
above-named groups represents the constituent membership of the 
Federation. It is perhaps the chief purpose of the Federation to 
further the organization of new units in these groups; and also to 
promote the sub-federation of the existing units into city centrals, 
STATE federations OF LABOR, and so-callcd national departments, 
all of which (though constituting a dual membership) are separately 
represented in the Federation's annual convention. The other 
main objects of the Federation are: (i) To further mutual assistance 
and cooperation between its affiliated units and sub-federations; 
(2) **to secure legislation in the interest of the working people, and 
influence public opinion, by peaceful and legal methods, in favor of 
organized labor"; (3) "to aid and encourage the sale of union 
LABEL goods"; and (4) "to aid and encourage the labor press of 
America." The Federation maintains headquarters in Washington, 
D. C, and holds an annual convention. This convention is a legis- 
lative body, with practically sovereign powers. Voting on ordinary 
questions is decided by a show of hands, but in case of a roll call 
each delegate is entitled to cast one vote for every hundred members 
or major fraction thereof whom he represents. The permanent 
officers of the Federation are a president, eight vice-presidents, a 
secretary, and a treasurer. These eleven officers form the executive 
council, or governing body of the Federation. The executive council 
carries out the convention's orders, and issues statements on labor 
questions from time to time. It initiates many of the measures 
brought before the convention ; it watches and initiates national and 

[ 12 ] 



state labor legislation, organizes federal labor unions and local trade 
unions, reports boycotts for endorsement, unifies organizations, 
sends out speakers, grants and revokes charters at the order of the 
convention, and performs variotis other functions. The Federa- 
tion's revenues are derived from cpiarter fees, membership dues 
from affiliated bodies, and a per capita tax laid upon every unionist 
belonging to an affiliated body. The Federation maintains a defence 
fund contributed by the federal and local labor unions, which is 
used in paying strike benefits to the members of these bodies. The 
total membership of all unions affiliated with the Federation is now 
about four millions. One of the two main principles upon which 
the Federation has been built up is that of craft as opposed to indus- 
trial organization, although a considerable measure of the latter 
exists among its affiliated units. The other main principle is that 
of non-political activities, although in this case also the Federation 
has been forced to a considerable degree of compromise. In general, 
the Federation is decidedly representative of the conservative ele- 
ments in American trade unionism. "The basis of the Federation 
is that principle of alliance, and union for certain purposes, of inde- 
pendent minor republics, upon which the union of the American 
states proceeded. Each trade is independently organized, not, it is 
conceived, by virtue of any authority emanating from the head of 
the whole, but by its own independent power. Each trade organiza- 
tion retains its sovereign control of its internal affairs, and only 
joins with the others in a federal organization for the consideration 
of common interests and the promotion of the common good." The 
Federation now includes a considerable majority of the organized 
workers of America. The strongest of the railway brotherhoods 
— the engineers, the firemen, the conductors, and the trainmen — 
remain outside of it, and so do a few other important organizations. 
(See Labor Forward Movement; Business Unionism; Class 
Unionism; Pure and Simple Unionism; Regular Unionism; 
Organizer; Federation; Color Line in Trade Unionism; Suc- 
cessive Strike; Buck Stove and Range Case; International 
Federation op Trade Unions; Porto Rican Free Federation 
OP Workers.) 

American Labor Union. See Industrial Workers op the 
World. 

American Plan. A term often used by employers in desig- 
nation of what they call the ''open shop principle," it being contended 
that the discrimination against non-union workers involved in the 

[13] 



CLOSED SHOP principle is un-American. But many advocates of the 
so-called ** American plan" use this name to camouflage an at least 
equally un-American discrimination — directed in their case against 
trade unionists. In fact, as somx of its most prominent adherents 
interpret the "American plan," what is intended is not the open 
shop at all, but the "closed non-union shop" or "anti-union shop" 
— one in which no member of an "outside" trade union would be 
permitted to work. Non-union and anti-union shops are sometimes 
called by the employers "American shops " or "independent American 
shops." 

American Shop. See American Plan. 

American Social Democratic League. Organized in 1918 
by a sm^all group of prominent pro-war secessionists from the Social- 
ist Party of America. The League has never attracted the rank 
and file of the socialist movement, though figuring largely in the 
press. It received considerable approval from the government, its 
members being the only socialists from this country who were per- 
mitted to attend international conferences abroad during the war. 

American Standard of Living. Although this vague term, 
much used as it is, has never been and probably never could be 
exactly defined, perhaps as good an approximation as any to its 
meaning is contained in the following, from John Mitchell's "Organ- 
ized Labor": "The American standard of living should mean, to the 
ordinary unskilled workman with an average family, a comfortable 
house of at least six rooms. It should mean a bathroom, good sani- 
tary plumbing, a parlor, dining room, kitchen, and sufficient sleeping 
room that decency may be preserved and a reasonable degree of 
comfort maintained. The American standard of living should mean 
to the unskilled workman carpets, pictures, books, and firmiture 
with which to make home bright, comfortable, and attractive for 
himself and his family, an ample supply of clothing suitable for winter 
and summer, and above all a sufficient quantity of good, wholesome, 
nourishing food at all times of the year. The American standard of 
living, moreover, should mean to the unskilled workman that his 
children be kept in school until they have attained to the age of 
sixteen at least, and that he be enabled to lay by sufficient to miain- 
tain himself and his family in times of illness, or at the close of his 
industrial life, when age and weakness render further work impossible, 
and to make provision for his family against his premature death 
from accident or otherwise." (See Standard of Living.) 

[14] 



Amsterdam Trade Union Internationale. See Interna- 
tional Federation of Trade Unions. 

Anarchism. In its derivative sense, the theory or fact of non- 
government or "government by none" — just as the word "monarch- 
ism" denotes the theory or fact of "government by one." Broadly 
speaking, anarchism may be defined as a social doctrine based on 
the conception that all constituted authority is ethically wrong and 
antagonistic to man's highest development. Anarchism would 
abolish all constraint save intelligent obedience to natural laws, 
and would substitute for the present political State a voluntary 
association of free individuals, acting in harmony with the law of 
mutual aid. Says Bertrand Russell: "It is opposed to the State 
as the embodiment of the force employed in the government of the 
community. Such government as Anarchism can tolerate must 
be free government, not merely in the sense that it is that of a ma- 
jority, but in the sense that it is that assented to by all. Anarchists 
object to such institutions as the police and the criminal law, by 
means of which the will of one part of the community is forced 
upon another part. In their view, the democratic form of govern- 
ment is not very enormously preferable to other forms so long as 
minorities are compelled by force or its potentiality to submit to the 
will of majorities. Liberty is the supreme good in the Anarchist 
creed, and liberty is sought by the direct road of abolishing all 
forcible control over the individual by the community." Two dif- 
ferent, and in some ways opposing, schools of anarchism may be 
noted: (i) Individualist or philosophical anarchism, mainly an 
American intellectual movement, which would have all forms of 
voluntary organization spring from the individual, and advocates 
a revolution of ideas; (2) anarchist communism, mainly a European 
working-class movement, which accepts the class struggle and 
would overthrow present forms of government by force if necessary, 
substituting therefor a communal life whose ideal does not greatly 
differ from that of socialism save that it would not be realized 
through the State. Most anarchism of today is of the latter type. 
To quote Mr. Russell again: "Socialism and Anarchist Communism 
alike have arisen from the perception that private capital is a source 
of tyranny by certain individuals over others. Orthodox Socialism 
believes that the individual will become free if the State becomes the 
sole capitalist. Anarchism, on the contrary, fears that in that case 
the State might merely inherit the tyrannical propensities of the 
private capitalist. Accordingly, it seeks for a means of reconciling 

[15] 



communal ownership with the utmost possible diminution in the 
powers of the State, and indeed ultimately with the complete aboli- 
tion of the State. It has arisen mainly within the Socialist movement 
as its extreme left wing." Anarchism differs from syndicalism 
chiefly in that, while the syndicalists would substitute for the present 
political State a government of trade unionism solely in the interests 
of the working class, true anarchists are opposed to any form of 
coercive government. (See Force Anarchists; Bolshevism.) 

Anarchist Communism. See Anarchism; Communism. 

Anarchists of the Deed. See Force Anarchists. 

Anarcho-Sozialismus. See Gewerkschaften. 

Angestellten. Salaried or non-manual workers — the class 
familiarly known as blackcoats in England and white collars 
in America — are so called in Germany. They are for the most 
part organized separately from the manual wage-earners, in strong 
national unions, with a central federative body — the Arheitsge- 
meinschaft freier Angestelltenverhdnde , more commonly referred to as 
*'Afa." The latter works in close cooperation with the Allge- 
meiner Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund. 

Angestelltenrat (Non-Manual or Salaried Employees' Works 
Council). See German Works Councils Law. 

Anti -Sabotage Laws. See Criminal Syndicalism Laws. 

Anti -Screening Laws. See Screening System. 

Anti -Truck Laws. See Truck System. 

Anti -Union Shop. See Open Shop; Non-Union Shop; 
American Plan. 

Apportionment Lists. In the British labor movement, 
some of the bodies designated to settle demarcation disputes issue 
from time to time printed circulars embodying their findings in a 
series of decisions. These "apportionment lists," as they are called, 
are supplied for the information of the trades in the particular 
districts to which they apply. 

Apprentice. One who, "by promise, indenture, or covenant" 
for a specified time, is being taught a trade by a master of the trade 
or by some one in the latter 's employ. Dtiring the time of such in- 
struction the apprentice may receive only nominal wages, or no 

[i6] 



wage at all ; or he may even work without compensation and pay for 
his instruction as well. The latter basis, however, is now rare. (See 
Apprenticeship; Learner; Helper.) 

Apprenticeship or Apprentice System. The ' custom of 
requiring a beginning worker to serve a period of preliminary train- 
ing and learning before being permitted to follow his trade or craft 
reaches back at least as far as the i6th century. During Queen 
Elizabeth's reign it was enacted that no person should exercise any 
trade or "mystery" without serving an apprenticeship of seven 
years. The apprentice was "bound" or "indentured" to his master 
by a strict contract for that period ; he lived in the home of the mas- 
ter, and the latter became his guardian, responsible not only for his 
manual training but for his physical and moral well-being. With 
the introduction of machinery and the division of labor, the old 
"indentured" apprenticeship system began to decay, until in the 
sixties it was largely a thing of the past. Today, except in some of 
the older and more highly-skilled trades, it has been practically 
replaced by various schemes of vocational education carried on 
outside the shop, and covering a much shorter period. But the prob- 
lem presented by large ntunbers of young and comparatively un- 
skilled workers employed in the guise of apprentices or learners, 
and working in competition with older skilled craftsmen, is still an 
important one to trade unionists. Hence the strong trade union 
insistence on what is called the "limitation of apprentices." Pro- 
fessor Carlton summarizes this matter as follows: "Many unions 
composed of skilled men demand that the ntmiber of apprentices 
in a shop be limited and that provisions be made for adequate instruc- 
tion. The length of apprenticeship insisted upon is usually three or 
four years, instead of the seven of the traditional apprenticeship 
system. The apprenticeship period usually begins between the 
ages of fifteen and twenty-one years. The common ratio of appren- 
tices to journeymen is one to five. In some of the building trades 
a progressive restriction is agreed upon. The Stone Cutters only 
allow one apprentice in a yard employing less than fifteen journey- 
men, not more than two in case less than one hundred are employed, 
and not more than four in any yard. 'Except in the old handcrafts, 
which have suffered little deterioration from machinery or new 
processes, together with the building, the metal, and the printing 
trades, no provisions regarding entrance to the trade are usually 
contained in the agreements between employers and employees.* 
Strong unions in trades requiring skilled work are most insistent 

[17] 



upon rules regulating apprenticeship. Only a comparatively small 
number of unions are able effectively to enforce rules limiting the 
number of apprentices." (See Patrimony; Illegal Men; Open 
Trades; Indentured Service; Wisconsin Apprenticeship System.) 

Approved Societies. See National Insurance Act. 

Arbeidernes Faglige Landsorganisation i Norge (Nor- 
wegian National Trade Union Federation). The principal labor 
organization of Norway; established 1899. A membership of 150,000 
was represented by the Federation in July, 1920. Close relations 
are maintained with the Norske Arbeider Parti (Norway Labor 
Party), which since 19 18 has been dominated by the communist 
elements. In 19 19 the Party decided to join the third Inter- 
nationale, and a year later it adopted a resolution favoring a Soviet 
government for Norway. This revolutionary programme was en- 
dorsed by the Federation at its 1920 Congress. 

Arbeiter. Manual wage-earners are so called in Germany — 
the non-manual or salaried workers being known as Angestellten. 

Arbeiterbildungsausschuss. See Working-Class Educa- 
tion. 

Arbeiterkammern. Austrian chambers of labor or indus- 
trial COUNCILS, established under a law recently enacted by the 
National Assembly. Their general purpose is "to represent the 
economic interests and to promote the economic and social conditions 
of manual workers and salaried employees in industry, commerce, 
transportation, and mining." Each chamber of labor is to be com- 
posed of two sections — one for manual workers and one for salaried 
employees. A chamber may be composed of not less than thirty 
and not more than one hundred members. The election of members 
is to be effected according to the principles of proportionate repre- 
sentation, by direct secret ballot, and for a term of five years. Each 
section forms a separate electorate. The costs of the chambers 
of labor are to be borne by the workers and salaried employees 
themselves, and they are placed under the supervision of the Min- 
istry for Social Administration. 

Arbeiterrat (Manual Wage-Earners' Works Council). See 
German Works Councils Law. 

Arbeitersekretariat. In the German trade union movement, 
an office for the collection, classification, and dissemination of 

[18] 



trade union information, statistics, etc., and for general aid to trade 
unionists. The secretary of a gewerkschaftskartell (trades 
council) is usually the local Arheitersekretar , acting as "a guide, 
philosopher, and friend in industrial and political matters to all 
Social Democrats and trade unionists in the region under his 
charge. The Arheitersekretariat often carries out extremely valuable 
social research work. For instance, that of Nuremberg some years 
ago investigated the family budgets of many thousands of work- 
men in that city, and published the results as a special report." 
A Zentralarheitersekretariat is attached to the Berlin office of the 
Allgemeiner Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund; among its other 
duties is that of representing individual members of trade unions 
in regard to matters of old age and sickness insurance which come 
before the national insurance bureau. 

Arbeitsgemeinschaft freier Angestelltenverbande. See 

Angestellten. 

Arbeitsgemeinschaften. In Germany, these are joint com- 
mittees or INDUSTRIAL COUNCILS of trade unionists and em.ployers 
for specific trades or industries. They were instituted during the 
war for the furtherance of industrial peace and cooperation, and have 
continued their functions since' the armistice. 

Arbitration. In an industrial sense, the plan of referring the 
settlement of differences or disputes between employers and workers 
to an "impartial" agency, public or private, with powers to conduct 
an independent investigation of the matter and to hand down a 
"neutral" decision or award. Arbitration should not be confused 
with CONCILIATION. Whcrcas under conciliation the disputants 
merely endeavor to reach an agreement between themselves, with 
or without the assistance of a third party, under arbitration the 
decision or settlement is arrived at by a presumably neutral or im- 
partial agency. Arbitration may be either voluntary or compul- 
sory. In the former case, the two parties voluntarily refer their 
dispute to a chosen agency of arbitration. In the latter case, the 
law directly or indirectly compels the disputants to submit their 
quarrel to an outside agency for decision. In either case the usual 
procedure of arbitration consists in the following steps: (i) Sub- 
mission of the dispute to the decision of a third party; (2) submission 
to an investigation; (3) refraining from strike or lockout pending 
investigation; (4) drawing up an award. The award may or may 
not be binding on the contending parties, according to the terms 

[19] 



under which the dispute was submitted to arbitration. But the 
process of arbitration is still voluntary if only the first step — the 
submission of the dispute — be reserved to voluntary action; even 
though the three other steps and acceptance of the award are com- 
pulsory. ''In order correctly to understand the scope and nature of 
industrial arbitration, it is necessary to bear in mind continually 
the important distinction between the two chief classes of industrial 
differences which may be adjusted by peaceful m.ethods. These 
two classes are: (i) Those which concern the interpretation of the 
existing terms of employment, usually of a minor character; and (2) 
those which have to do with the general terms of future employment, 
and which are usually more imiportant. The great m.ajority of dis- 
putes are of the former class. They relate not to questions of prin- 
ciple, but to details and interpretations. Thus, if there be a general 
agreement or understanding that a certain price shall be paid to 
workingmen for doing a certain piece of work, a difference may arise 
in case there is some minor change in the work to be done. If the 
employer agrees to hire only union men, there may be a dispute as 
to the standing of some man v/hom he employs. Of course, these 
questions may readily pass over into disputes as to more general 
m^atters. On the other hand, from time to time the question arises 
between an employer and his men, or between organizations of em- 
ployers and of employees, as to the general conditions under which 
labor shall thereafter be performed. Such differences are likely to 
involve larger numbers of persons than those of the first class and to 
be more difficult of adjustment." The settlem.ent of such general 
questions is often known as "primary arbitration," and represents 
a process akin to that of legislation. The interpretation and general 
application of terms already fixed, sometimes called "secondary 
arbitration," is purely a judicial process. A majority of the states 
in this country have enacted legislation providing for the arbitra- 
tion of industrial disputes. PeiTnanent boards of conciliation and 
arbitration have been set up in some states ; in others the state labor 
commissioner acts as mediator and arbitrator; while in still others 
this function is assigned to the state industrial commission. 
Some states have made legislative provision for local boards of 
arbitration in certain circumstances and under specified conditions. 
The Federal government has enacted various laws relating to arbi- 
tration in connection with disputes among employers and employees 
engaged in interstate commerce; and the United States Depart- 
ment OF Labor has power to act, within rather limited scope, under 
certain emergencies. But more important than these public agencies 

[20] 



is the voluntary establishment of arbitration machinery within the 
various trades themselves, by the method of collective bargain- 
ing. Many trade agreements provide for referring all disputes, 
especially those relating to the interpretation of the labor contract, 
to joint boards or committees representing the employers and em- 
ployees, while in numerous instances impartial umpires or arbitra- 
tors are appointed or called in to settle matters as to which such 
committees cannot agree. The most conspicuous manifestation of 
the movement in favor of more harmonious relations between em- 
ployers and employees is found in the systems of conferences and 
joint agreements covering trades throughout the entire country, 
or throughout large sections. Although conciliation and arbitration 
regarding minor disputes arising as to the interpretation of the labor 
contract are usually found in connection with systems of collective 
bargaining for the determination of the contract itself, there are 
frequently individual disputes which are referred to arbitration by 
private individuals in the absence of formal arrangements for collec- 
tive bargaining. Still more frequently, probably, are matters re- 
ferred to arbitration in trades where workingmen are organized, but 
where they do not ordinarily carry on collective bargaining in a 
systematic manner with the employers. In Great Britain the ma- 
chinery for arbitration of industrial disputes, particularly through 
the method of joint boards, is of earlier origin, wider extent, and more 
systematic character, than in the United States. (See Compulsory 
Arbitration; Trade Arbitration; Continuous Arbitration; 
Compulsory Investigation; Mediation; with all cross references 
under these headings. See also, Railway Labor Board; National 
Adjustment Commission; National War Labor Board; National 
Adjustment Board.) 

Arbitration Boards or Arbitration Committees. See Trade 
Arbitration. 

Arbitration within the Trade. See Trade Arbitration. 

Arbitrator. A presumably impartial "outsider," appointed 
either by the consent of the two parties involved or by superior author- 
ity, who acts as a judge in deciding the merits of an industrial dispute. 
He inquires into the facts of the case, receives evidence from both 
sides, and then hands down a decision or award in settlement of the 
dispute. While the terms "arbitrator" and "mediator" should be 
carefully differentiated, it may be noted that the tactful and ex- 
perienced arbitrator often acts largely in the capacity of a mediator. 
2 [21] 



That is to say, through a process of narrowing down the points at 
issue he may gradually and imperceptibly force each disputant to 
a recognition of such justice as may lie in the other's case; so that 
his award, when it is finally given, is likely to be accepted by both 
parties as inevitable. (See x^rbitration.) 

Argentine Federation of Labor. See Federacion Obrera 
Regional Argentina. 

Aristocracy of Labor. The skilled artisan class, as represented 
in the larger and stronger craft unions, is often so called. (See 
Corporatisme.) 

Armed Guards or Company Guards. In connection with 
strikes and other serious labor disputes, it has been a common 
practice of large American industrial corporations to employ a corps 
of armed men — often provided by labor detective agencies — 
who patrol the plant and grounds of the corporation and operate 
under its direction in endeavoring to "break" the strike. This 
system of substituting private for public police authority has led 
to many bloody incidents in the past, and is probably the most 
common source of violence in labor disputes. In recognition of this 
fact, a number of states in this country have enacted laws forbidding 
the private importation of armed men from other states for the 
protection of property. In three or four states the employment of 
armed bodies of men under private control is specifically declared 
illegal. But in a community where the local authorities are in 
sympathy with the corporation, as is often the case, the obviously 
illegal status of armed guards may be overcome by the simple process 
of having them "sworn in" as "special deputies," "special police," 
or members of the state militia. Armed guards are usually referred 
to as "gunmen" among the working classes. (See Policing of 
Industry; Violence in the Labor Movement.) 

Arsenal Plan. A successful plan of employee representation 
introduced in 191 8 in the Federal arsenal at Rock Island, 111. The 
men selected an advisory committee to cooperate with the War 
Department, were permitted to choose their own foremen, and had 
part in fixing piece work prices. Main emphasis in the "arsenal 
plan" is placed upon the workers' joint responsibility with the 
management in increasing the output; hence when contracts were 
under consideration the workers were fully consulted in regard to 
the costs and conditions under which the work must be executed. 

[22] 



Artel . A Russian word meaning ' * gang ' ' ; originally a transitory 
body of Russian workmen, of any number, coming together to under- 
take a particular piece of work in cooperation and dividing the 
joint profits. More recently in Russia the term chiefly denoted a 
permanent trade organization, with collective responsibility for its 
individual members. (See Cooperative Employment.) 

Asiatic Barred Zone. The Federal immigration act of Feb- 
ruary 5, 191 7, provides in part for the exclusion from the United 
States of natives of the continent of Asia and adjacent islands lying 
within certain specified meridians of longitude and parallels of lati- 
tude. The ''barred zone" thus described includes India, Siam, 
Indo-China, parts of Siberia, Afghanistan, and Arabia, the islands of 
Java, Sumatra, Ceylon, Borneo, New Guinea, Celebes, and various 
lesser groups. Exception is made in favor of government officials, 
travellers for curiosity or pleasure, and persons of certain specified 
professional classes, so that in effect laborers only are prohibited. 
The actual boundaries of the barred zone include a portion of China, 
but the act provides that where immigration regulation — or rather 
exclusion — is "provided for by existing treaties" the geographical 
exclusion is not applicable; hence China is not within its scope. 
(See Chinese Exclusion Laws.) 

Assignment of Wages. See Wage Exemption. 

Assistance Fund. See Strike Fund. 

Assisted Immigration. This term is often used in a sense 
synonymous with induced immigration, but it refers more properly 
to that class of immigrants who receive financial assistance (either 
from their relatives already in this country, or from various public 
or private sources) in making their way to the United States. 

Associated Standard Recognized Railroad Labor Organ- 
izations. See Railway Brotherhoods. 

Association or Associationism. An Americanized form of 
Fourierism, introduced into the United States in 1834 by Albert 
Brisbane. Several definite experiments made by Brisbane and his 
fellow " associationists " on the main lines laid down by Fourier 
resulted in failure. 

Association Ouvriere. In France, an association of working- 
men for other than ordinary trade union purposes. 

[23] 



Associationism. See Association. 

Associations Ouvrieres de Production (Working-Men's As- 
sociations of Production). French societies of workers engaged in 
cooperative production. Such societies are now of considerable 
number and influence, particularly in the building trades. While 
they vary in type, they are in the main combinations of workmen 
formed to carry on their industries with their own capital or that of 
their trade unions, assisted by a government subvention. The law 
governing such societies provides (i) that public contracts shall 
be split up into such size that associations of workmen can bid on 
them; (2) that such associations shall not be obliged to deposit any 
guarantee when the contract is under a certain amount; (3) that 
workingmen's associations shall be given the preference when bids 
are equal; and (4) that payments shall be made to such associations 
every fifteen days. The government printing of France has for 
many 37-ears been done by these so-called "cooperative companion- 
ships." Several hundred of these societies are federated in the 
Chambre Consultative des Associations Ouvrieres de Production, which 
looks after their general business and legal interests, carries on educa- 
tional and propaganda work, etc. (See Cooperative Employment.) 

Assumer. See Entrepreneur. 

Assumption of Risk. See Employer's Liability. 

Attachment of Wages. See Wage Exemption. 

Attack Strike. See Lockout. 

Auchmuty System. A method of trade school instruction 
named after Colonel Richard T. Auchmuty, founder (in 1881) of 
the New York Trade School. The student is at first put on simple 
work, but as he acquires skill and workmanlike qualities he is ad- 
vanced to work that is more difficult and complicated, until he finally 
becomes familiar with all the processes of his trade. Both the prac- 
tical and the theoretical aspects of the trade are dealt with, "so that 
not only is skill quickly acquired but the scientific principles that 
underlie the work are also studied." (See Industrial Education.) 

Australian Arbitration Courts. Most of the Australian 

states require the submission of industrial disputes to a central 
state arbitration court, consisting generally of a single judge. In 
some cases, "assessors" representing the two sides are appointed 
to sit with the judge, but nearly always the latter has the power 

[24] 



of ultimate decision. Proceedings are conducted as in a civil court. 
The litigants engage advocates and file claims and replies, evidence 
is presented, witnesses examined, etc. The court decision, when 
rendered, becomes the state standard for the industry concerned 
in the dispute. (See Compulsory Arbitration.) 

Australian Labor Movement. The earliest beginnings of 
trade unionism in Australia consisted in the formation of local 
branches of large British unions. By 1885 there were more than 
a hundred trade unions, with a combined membership of about 
50,000. Defeat in several strikes from 1885 to 1890 awakened the 
workers to the need for political organization, and as a result the 
Australian Labor Party was established in 1892. Since then the 
labor movement in Australia has been strongly political in character, 
working for socialistic legislation through the Federal Parliament. 
At the present time Australian trade unionism is numerically strong, 
but weak in organization. In 1919 there were 627,685 trade union- 
ists, or 12.6 per cent of the total population, organized in 394 unions 
— an average of 1,590 members per union. There is no central 
unifying body for Australian trade unionism. In the larger towns 
are Labor Councils, which secure some measure of coordination; 
and sometimes these Labor Councils in a state capital, such as 
Sydney, receive affiliations from other parts of the state. But even 
these latter Councils are seldom fully representative, and their 
function is deliberative and advisory, rather than executive. Some 
of the larger unions, organized on a national or inter-state basis, are 
not affiliated with the Councils. The inter-State conferences, held at 
irregular intervals, are of similar character to the Councils. The 
One Big Union idea has come to play a considerable part in the 
Australian labor movement of late — both generally, within the 
trade unions, and more specifically in the Workers' Industrial 
Union. Although the Australian Workers' Union also claims 
to embody the One Big Union principle, it opposes the more revolu- 
tionary Workers' Industrial Union, 

Australian Labor Party. Organized in 1892, largely as a 
result of the great maritime strike of 1890, in which the workers 
had suffered defeat. In 1893 twenty-four representatives of the 
Labor Party were elected to the New South Wales legislature, and 
from that time the movement steadily grew. The Labor Party has 
since been in control of affairs at various periods in every legislature 
and in the national government. At the outbreak of the war it had 
reached its high water mark, every state with the exception of 

[25] 



Victoria having a labor government, while in the Federal government 
labor was in the majority. The Labor Party's programme is mainly 
socialistic, though it includes a considerable measure of nationalism 
also. In actual structure, the Party is a loose federation of the six 
state parties, each of which is practically independent. Each de- 
termines its own state policy, and sends delegates to a Federal 
conference. The Federal conference defines a Federal platform and 
appoints a Federal executive; but the latter, since it meets infre- 
quently and has no funds, has little power. The real strength lies 
in the regular support of the trade unions, which are affiliated sepa- 
rately in the various states. The trade unions also own most of the 
labor press. (See Australian Labor Movement.) 

Australian Workers' Union. An organization devoted to 
the principles of industrial unionism "on sane lines suitable to 
AustraHan circumstances and conditions." It opposes the more 
revolutionary industrial unionism advocated by the Workers' 
Industrial Union of Australia, although like that body it claims 
to be committed to the One Big Union principle. (See Australian 
Labor Movement.) 

Austrian Central Trade Union Commission. See Gewerk- 

SCHAFTSKOMMISSION DeUTSCHOSTERREICHS. 

Austrian Social Democratic Labor Party. See Gewerk- 

SCHAFTSKOMMISSION DeUTSCHOSTERREICHS. 

Austrian Works Councils. Under a law which came into 
force July 25, 19 19, the election of works councils in all Austrian 
factories and other establishments where at least twenty wage- 
earners are employed continuously is obligatory. These councils 
conclude, maintain, and interpret collective agreements, in coopera- 
tion with the trade unions; fix wages; supervise the enforcement 
of protective labor legislation and social insurance laws; co- 
operate in maintaining discipline ; participate in the management of 
WELFARE work; etc. In commercial establishments where at least 
thirty salaried employees and manual workers are employed, as well 
as in all factories and mines, the works council is entitled to demand 
that a balance sheet shall be submitted to it once a year, together 
with a profit and loss account and statistics of wages. In joint stock 
companies the council is entitled to elect two members of the board 
of directors. 

Authoritarian Socialism. See State Socialism. 

[26] 



Autonomy. In labor affairs, this term denotes the right of 
self-government and independent action on the part of a trade 
union, with respect to other unions or to federations of unions. "Local 
autonomy" refers to such right on the part of a local union in respect 
to a national union; while ''national autonomy" refers to the same 
right on the part of a national union in respect to other national 
unions or to federations of national unions. "Trade autonomy" 
or "craft autonomy" is the right of independent action and control 
on the part of a trade union in respect to a particular trade or craft 
within an industry. (See Sectionalism; Centralization.) 

Award. In labor affairs, the decision of an arbitration 
agency in settlement of an industrial dispute. If, under the terms 
of the arbitration agreement, the contending parties are free to accept 
or reject the award, as they choose, the result is called a voluntary 
award. If, on the other hand, it is stipulated in advance that the 
award shall be bindino^ on the contending parties for a specified 
time, the result is a compulsory award. 



B 



B. L. P. See British Labor Party. 

Bad Spinning. This term is most commonly used in connec- 
tion with a class of disputes, frequent in the British cotton industry, 
arising from workers' claims that the cotton stipplied them was of 
such bad quality that they could not earn the standard rate at 
"list" prices. The Brooklands agreement broke down over 
this point in 191 2. 

Bad Timekeeping. See Clocking. 

Barred Zone Provision. See Asiatic Barred Zone. 

Base Rate. In connection with scientific management, 
this is the regular or ordinary day wage which is usually guaranteed 
to an individual worker regardless of whether he attains the standard 
task. 

Base Time. In connection with scientific management, 
this is the usual or average amount of time required for turning out 
a given quantity of individual work. Unlike what is called the 
TASK time, it is determined mainly by estimates and averages drawn 
from past shop records, rather than by detailed time and motion 

STUDY. 

Basic Eight -Hour Day. See Eight-Hour Day. 

Bedroom Shop. See One-Man Shop. 

Belgian General Federation of Christian and Free Trade 
Unions. See Belgian Trade Unions. 

Belgian Labor Party. See Parti Ouvrier Belge. 

Belgian Trade Union Commission. See Commission Syn- 
dic ale Belge. 

Belgian Trade Unions. As in Germany, the trade unions of 
Belgium are chiefly of two kinds: (i) Socialist, or Social Demo- 
cratic, organizations; and (2) Christian, or Catholic Democratic 

[28] 



organizations — also called "neutral" unions. The Christian trade 
unions, however, are relatively more numerous and powerful than in 
Germany, having perhaps 200,000 members as against 700,000 in 
the socialist unions. Both the socialist and the Christian unions 
are centralized, as in Germany, in a comparatively few strong na- 
tional unions. There is much rivalry between the socialist and the 
Christian bodies. The former are federated in the national Com- 
mission Syndicale Belge, and are affiliated with the Parti 
OuvRiER Belge or Belgian Labor Party. The Christian unions 
are nationally federated in the Confederation Generate des Syndicats 
Chretiens et Litres de Belgique. Before the war, collective bar- 
gaining with the labor unions prevailed in a few industries only. 
Collective agreements were confined to local arrangements in minor 
industries, such as the printing trades, quarries, glass, diamond- 
cutting, etc. They were unknown in the main industries: coal- 
mining, iron and steel, transportation, and (with some local excep- 
tions) textiles. Now the conditions are reversed; collective bargain- 
ing with the unions is the rule everywhere, the autocratic or "pater- 
nal" employer is the exception. This change is due less to a modi- 
fication of the individual attitude of employers than to the fact that 
post-war conditions have radically altered the balance of power 
between capitalists and workers. As industrial work was resumed 
after the armistice, the workers flocked into the unions by hundreds 
of thousands. In one year the unions increased their membership 
by about 400 per cent. In Belgium every employee of a cooperative 
society raust be a trade unionist, and the premises of the cooperative 
societies are invariably the headquarters of the local or national 
trade union, as well as of the local or national committees of the 
Labor Party. In an industrial dispute, the cooperatives supply 
provisions for the strikers and their families; and in ordinary times 
they make considerable appropriations from their profits to trade 
union and socialist propaganda. (See Industrial Council System 
IN Belgium.) 

Bell Horse. See Speeding Up. 

Benefit Funds. See Benefits; Establishment Fund. 

Benefit Societies. See Friendly Societies. 

Benefits. Payments made by trade unions, by mutual aid 
societies, or by the State, in relief of members of the working class 
under any form of social insurance, are usually so called; although 
various other terms, such as "pay," "donations," "allowances," 

[29] 



"relief," etc., are often employed in the same sense. A fairly com- 
plete list of such payments would include sickness, death, accident 
or other disability, superannuation (old age pensions or retirement 
allowances), maternity, legal aid, and funeral benefits, out-of-work 
and strike benefits, travelling benefits, compensation for loss of 
tools by fire or theft, and such less common forms as marriage 
BENEFITS and VICTIM PAY. Of thcse various forms, out-of-work and 
strike benefits, travelling allowances, compensation for tools, and 
"victim pay" are commonly classified as "trade benefits," being 
paid as a rule only by trade unions. The others are known as * ' friendly 
benefits," and are paid by both trade tmions and mutual aid societies 
— in some cases by the State also. In addition to the cash pa^Tnents, 
or "cash benefits," additional relief for sickness, accident, maternity, 
etc., is sometimes provided in the form of medical treatment and 
supplies, kno^Ti as "medical benefits." Practically all the large 
national and international unions now maintain benefit funds in 
one or more forms, and strong benefit provisions have as a rule 
become essential to the making of strong trade unions. In the case 
of practically all American trade unions, the funds are raised 
as a part of the dues and assessments of members. In most cases 
a single simi is assessed as constituting the dues for the week or the 
month. Of this amount a designated portion goes to one fund; an- 
other portion to a second fund, and so on around. In such cases the 
funds for the several purposes are kept separate. In other instances 
there is but one fund into which all dues are paid and from which 
are taken the benefit payments provided for. The latter is coming 
to be the more usual method. These funds are usually in charge of 
the general officers, the president, the secretary-treasurer, or the 
executive board or council. Reports are submitted and audited at 
regular intervals. In some national unions, the benefits are paid 
wholly by the various local branches, in others wholly by the central 
organization, while in still others some forms are paid by the locals 
and other forms by the central organization. A few of the largest 
and strongest unions (notably the International Typographical 
Union and some of the railway brotherhoods) maintain perma- 
nent homes for sick or aged members out of their benefit funds. 
(See Death Benefits; Disability Benefits; Out-of-Work Bene- 
fits; Strike Pay; Travelling Benefits; Legal Aid Benefit; 
Shipwreck Benefit; Sou du Soldat; Trade Privilege Benefit; 
Establishment Fund; Sickness Insurance; Invalidity Insur- 
ance; Maternity Insurance; Mutual Insurance; Old Age 
Insurance; Tool Insurance; Unemployment Insurance.) 

[30] 



Benevolent Feudalism. This term is sometimes used in 
derogatory designation of various paternalistic schemes, ranging 
all the way from industrial welfare work to State socialism, 
which are handed down to labor from above rather than gained 
by labor's own efforts; and which, while perhaps increasing the 
welfare of the individual worker, tend rather to augment than to 
diminish the power of the capitalistic class. (See Paternalism.) 

Benevolent Fund. The fund from which trade union benefits 
are paid is often so called. In some unions, however, this is a separate 
fund used for relief of members in special cases. , 

Benevolent Societies or Benevolent Associations. See 
Mutual Aid Societies. 

Berkshire System. A method of team work once common in 
the iron-molding industry. Under this system, each expert molder 
employed a helper, known as a "Berkshire" or "buck," who after 
several years of employment might enter the trade as a molder. 
Owing to the improvement of foundry machinery, the "Berkshire 
system" (or "buck system," as it was frequently called) has very 
largely disappeared. 

Berne Internationale. See Internationale. 

Berufsgenossenschaften. Under the German system of 
workmen's compensation, these are mutual insurance associations 
of employers, formed according to law to provide collective respon- 
sibility in the payment of compensation claims. Each industry has 
its own association, and each association pays the claims of work- 
ingmen employed by its own members. "The members of each asso- 
ciation are annually assessed, according to the size of their pay 
rolls and the hazards of their business, at a rate stifficient to pay the 
death claims, the benefits to temporarily disabled workmen, and the 
pensions to entirely incapacitated workmen and the families of 
employees killed by accident. The assessments must also cover the 
administrative expenses of the association, which include the salaries 
of a large number of engineering and mechanical experts employed 
by the associations to inspect the factories of members and see that 
the best appliances are bought and used for safeguarding dangerous 
machinery." 

Betriebsobmann (Works Steward). See German Works 
Councils Law. 

[31] 



Betriebsrat or Betriebsarbeiterrat (Works Council). See' 
German Works Councils Law. 

Betriebsrategesetz (Works Councils Law). See German 
Works Councils Law. 

Betriebsversammlung (Works Assembly). See German 
Works Councils Law. 

Bezirksarbeiterrat (District Workers' Council). See German 
Works Councils Law. 

Bezirkswirtschaftsrat (District Economic Council). See 
Reichswirtschaftsrat. 

Big Four. See Railway Brotherhoods. 

Big Six. A common nickname for "Typographical Union No. 
6," the New York City branch of the International Typographical 
Union of North America. This is one of the oldest, largest, and 
most influential locals in the country. Horace Greeley was its 
president in 1850. 

Bill of Prices. See Price List. 

Birds of Passage. This term is commonly applied to those 
immigrants from Europe, Canada, Mexico, etc., who come to the 
United States with no intention of permanently settling here, but 
merely to earn enough money to enable them to return to their native 
countries and live there in comparative comfort upon their savings. 
They constitute a considerable percentage of all immigrants, and 
create some of the most serious social and economic problems con- 
nected with immigration. (See Harvesters.) 

Birmingham Alliances. The name commonly given to cer- 
tain compacts between employers and workers in six branches of 
the light metal trades of Birmingham, England. These alliances 
are based on exclusive agreements, and selling prices of the product 
are fixed by a joint "wages board" of employers' and workers* 
representatives in equal number. 

Bisbee Deportations. During a strilce in some of the Arizona 
copper mines, nearly 1,200 workmen of Bisbee were rounded up on 
July 12, 191 7, by armed mine officials and other members of a so- 
called Loyalty League, packed into freight cars, and deported across 
the border into New Mexico, where they were left marooned on the 
desert. After thorough investigation by the Federal government, 

[32] 



a report was issued condemning the act as a flagrant violation of 
elementary Constitutional rights; and on the basis of this report 
criminal proceedings were instituted by the Federal and state authori- 
ties against the mine owners and others who were responsible for 
this act; but both prosecutions have so far failed. In his book on 
"War-Time Strikes," Alexander M. Bing (an American employer) 
characterizes the Bisbee deportations as "probably the most deplor- 
able act of industrial violence which has occurred in the history of 
our country." (See Violence in the Labor Movement.) 

Black. In connection with European public affairs, the adjec- 
tive "black" is sometimes applied to anarchist and sometimes to 
Catholic movements, organizations, etc. — in either case, of course, 
by their opponents. The members of such organizations are often 
referred to as "blacks." (See Black Unions.) 

Black Money or Dirty Money. In certain British trades 
which involve special unpleasantness or injury to clothing, this is 
an extra payment, generally stipulated in the working rules, 
made because of the nature of the work. Thus, boilermakers and 
engineers working on oil-carrying vessels usually receive "black 
money." 

Black Unions. The separate organizations of Roman Catholic 
workers found in several European countries — notably Germany, 
Holland, Belgium, and Italy — are sometimes so called. (See Black; 
Italian Labor Movement.) 

Blackcoated Proletariat. See Blackcoats. 

Blackcoats. As used in British labor circles this term denotes 
the middle-class salaried workers, such as clerks, shop assistants, 
government employees, teachers, technicians, life insurance agents, 
etc. The development of trade union organization among the 
"blackcoats " during the last decade has been one of the most remark- 
able facts in British labor history. Nearly 750,000 of such workers 
are now members of various unions, which for the most part are 
directly affiliated with the British Labor Party and the Trades 
Union Congress. Also called the "blackcoated proletariat." (See 
Salariat; White Collars; Middle Class Unions.) 

Blackleg. In British labor parlance, the common equivalent 
for the American scab — ordinarily a worker who is hostile to trade 
unionism or who acts in opposition to trade union interests, especially 
in helping to defeat a strike. British workmen also use the word 

[33] * 



"scab" in this sense, but the latter term is far more common among 
American trade unionists. As in the case of "scab," "blackleg" is 
also used as a verb and an adjective. "Blacklegging" or "to black- 
leg" refers to any action in opposition to trade union policies or 
methods — more specifically, to taking the places of union strikers 
or otherwise helping to break down a strike. "Blackleg goods" are 
those produced or handled by blacklegs ; while a * ' blackleg organiza- 
tion" may be either an employers' association devoted largely to 
STRIKEBREAKING activities, or (as sometimes happens) a rival union 
which actively or passively helps to defeat a strike. An earlier term 
with the same connotations as "blackleg" is "knobstick," which is 
still occasionally used ; and these two terms have evidently been com- 
bined to produce "blacknob," another not uncommon variant. 
Finally, it should be mentioned that blacklegs are often spoken of 
simply as "blacks." (See Free Laborers.) 

Blacklist. In its simplest form, a list of names privately 
circulated among employers for the purpose of jointly refusing 
employment to union workmen in general or to individual workers 
who are held in disfavor. Most of the states of the American union 
have laws prohibiting blacklisting, but all such laws are practically 
dead letters. The open circulation of blacklists may be effectually 
restrained, yet numerous other methods of accomplishing the desired 
object have been devised and successfully used by employers. The 
blacklist has thus become a powerful weapon in combating organ- 
ized labor. According to the Report of the Federal Industrial 
Commission, "witnesses representing labor without exception de- 
nounce the blacklist as unjust. They hold that, while it may be proper 
for employers to warn one another against conspicuously dishonest, 
unfaithful, or incompetent employees, it is in derogation of the rights 
of individual workingmen and of the working class, that men whose 
only offense is loyalty to a labor organization or participation in a 
strike, should have their names blacklisted by associated employers 
so as to render it practically impossible for them to secure work. 
The effect of the blacklist is ordinarily immensely more injurious 
to the men concerned than a boycott, which is the counter weapon 
to the blacklist, could be to an employer. At the most, only a frac- 
tion of the customers of a boycotted establishment will withdraw 
their patronage as the result of a boycott, while all the employers 
in a given industry in a particular section of the country have at 
times confederated to prevent blacklisted men from getting em- 
ployment, so that they have been practically forced to leave the 

[34] 



trade altogether. . . . The circulation of lists of employees can not 
readily be ascertained, and the workingman who is refused a place 
can not know that a blacklist is the reason for such refusal. It is 
complained also that when workingmen are discharged they are some- 
times given letters stating the fact of their employment, and possibly 
including a formal recommendation, but with secret marks or other 
indications to show that the men are to be' considered objectionable. 
The principal complaint of such methods comes from railroad em- 
ployees and from coal miners. It seems to be generally believed, 
however, that the more formal and direct methods of blacklisting 
have largely disappeared." (See Clearance Letter; Leaving 
Certificate; Whitelist; Unfair List; Discharge Book Sys- 
tem; Rustling Card; Personal Record System.) 

Blacknob. See Blackleg. 

Blacks. See Black; Blackleg. 

Blank. See Travelling Card. 

Blanket Injunction. This form of injunction, which is 
particularly criticized by organized labor, consists in a court writ 
directed not merely against specified persons, parties to a dispute, 
but against unnamed persons, and even against all persons in general. 
In the famous Debs case, for example, the injunction issued was by 
its terms made binding upon "all other persons whatsoever who are 
not named herein from and after the time when they shall severally 
have knowledge of such order." It has been objected by labor lead- 
ers and others that all court traditions and rules have required that 
each person affected by an order of court shall be specifically named 
and shall have the order served personally upon him. The courts 
have usually treated this criticism lightly, declaring that it is as 
proper to issue an injunction against many persons as against one, 
and that there must be no inadequacy in equity remedies because 
of technical points. This was the position taken by the United 
States Supreme Court in the Debs case. The blanket injunction 
is occasionally referred to under the name of "omnibus injunction." 

Blanket Stiff. A common nickname for a migratory worker 
or tramp in the Northwest, often a member of the I. W. W., who 
travels about with no other personal belongings than his clothes 
and a blanket. (See Stiff.) 

Blind Alley Occupations. Those forms of employment which 
offer no possibility of promotion or advancement to the workers 

[35] 



— those which, like a ''blind alley," lead nowhere. The French 
term "cul-de-sac" is also often used in this connection. Most of 
the industrial occupations of children, and many of those followed 
by women, are of the "blind alley" or "cul-de-sac" variety. 

Block Representation. See Employee Representation. 

Block Vote. Refers to the method, commonly adopted in 
labor congresses, conventions, etc., by which the voting strength 
of each delegate is proportioned to the nimiber of members which 
he represents. Thus, in the annual conventions of the American 
Federation of Labor, each delegate is ordinarily entitled to cast 
one vote on any important measure for every one hundred members 
or major fraction thereof whom he represents. Votes on less important 
measures are usually taken by a show of hands. (See Voting by 
Card.) 

Board of Business Agents. See Building Trades Councils. 

Boards of Reference. See Commonwealth Court of Arbi- 
tration AND Conciliation. 

Bohunk. See Hunky, 

Bolshevik Internationale. See Communist Internationale. 

Bolshevism. In its only accurate sense, this term denotes the 
political, social, and economic theories and practice of the Bolsheviki, 
or Russian Communist Party, comprising the revolutionary socialists 
of Russia who overthrew Kerensk^^'s proA^sional government in 
November, 191 7, established the present Soviet government, and 
have remained in power ever since. In rough translation, the name 
Bolsheviki means "adherents of the majority"; opposed to them 
are the Mensheviki, or "adherents of the minority." The two groups 
resulted from a split in the Russian Social Democratic Party 
in 1905. After 191 7 the Bolsheviki officially changed the name of 
their organization to the Russian Communist Party, The funda- 
mental distinction of the Bolsheviki from the opportunist socialists, 
or Mensheviki, is in their unwavering advocacy of the class strug- 
gle, and in their consequent belief that during the transition period 
between a capitalistic and a socialistic regime the opposition between 
the classes makes it necessary that the power of the State should lie 
exclusively in the hands of the "producers" — by which term they 
designate not manual laborers only, but doctors, teachers, scientists, 
technical experts, soldiers, artists, and all others who make some 

[36] 



definite contribution to the necessary industrial and cultural activi- 
ties of society and the maintenance of the State. Starting out as 
uncompromising disciples of Karl Marx, the Bolsheviki have been 
forced in practice to modify or discard some of the most important 
tenets of scientific socialism. Although in full control of the gov- 
ernment, they represent but a comparatively small minority of the 
Russian people. In view of the popular idea that Bolshevism is 
synonymous with anarchism, it may be noted that next to the ex- 
propriated aristocracy the bitterest opponents of the Bolsheviki 
in Russia are members of the anarchist group. In the realm of 
propaganda rather than of fact, Bolshevism is a common epithet 
applied to any unorthodox social or economic views, the purpose being 
to discredit such views without going to the trouble of refuting them. 
(See Soviet System; Parlor Bolshevism.) 

Bombacci Plan. A provisional scheme for the establishment 
of a soviet system within the present industrial and political organi- 
zation of Italy; drawn up by Signer N. Bombacci, political secretary 
of the Italian Socialist Party, and ofhcially accepted at that Party's 
national Congress early in 1920. Following the broad outlines of 
the Russian system, it contemplates a national network of Soviets 
— above and beyond the present factory councils — which shall 
prepare themselves to be the organs of revolutionary defense and 
administration in the new "proletarian State" when the social 
revolution comes. But its particular preoccupation is to preserve 
the authority of the Italian Socialist Party, as advance guard of the 
revolution, working within the soviet system. 

Bonus System. While often used in designation of the premium 
BONUS system and other specialized forms of wage payment under 
scientific management, strictly speaking this is merely a simple 
variant or extension of either the time work or the piece work 
system. It consists, in essence, in the payment of the ordinary 
time or piece rate, and in addition thereto a certain specified sum 
when the worker reaches or exceeds a specified amount of output. 
Bonus systems may be either individual or collective : the individual 
worker may be paid a bonus on his or her individual ouput over a 
period of time or on a particular job, or a group of workers may be 
paid a collective bonus on their total output. According to G. D. 
H. Cole, "the commonest type of individual bonus system is one 
under which the bonus begins when a specified output has been 
reached. Under this system the worker is paid a time-rate, and to 
this time-rate there corresponds a certain nominal task, which, 

3 [37] 



however, is not enforced as a minimum. Until this task has been 
accompHshed no bonus is paid; but on all output over and above 
the given task a certain bonus per piece is added to the worker's 
earnings. Or, in other cases, a lump s^om is paid as a bonus to all 
workers who reach the standard output. This is an instance of an 
individual bonus system superimposed upon tim.e-work conditions. 
Another system is one in which the bonus is superim.posed upon 
piece-work. The worker is paid a piece-vrork price on his or her 
output, but again when the output reaches a certain level per hour or 
per week, a bonus is added either on the whole of the earnings, or 
on all additional production over and above the stipulated standard 
output." In either case, the point at which the bonus begins is gen- 
erally determhned by past working records, by a workshop average, 
or by the arbitrar\- judgment of employer or foremxan, rather than 
by any '"scientific" analysis on the basis of time and motion study. 
In addition to the above, bonuses may be granted for time-keeping, 
diligence, good conduct, etc., and also deductions may be made for 
spoilt work and for misdem^eanors. (See Collective Bonus System ; 
Differential Piece Rate System; Efficiency Payments; Re- 
^VAR^D Systems.) 

Boomxers. See Migratory Labor. 

Boring from Within. Denotes the efrort to gain control of 
an organization by becoming a fully participating member and en- 
deavoring to motild or revolutionize its policies from the inside. 
With particular reference to the revolutionary labor movement, 
it denotes the policy, on the part of individuals in that m.ovemxent, 
of becoming members of the more conser\-ative labor bodies and then 
agitating as mem^bers for the adoption of radical arms and principles. 
In the French syndicalist m.ovement, vrhere it has been generaUy 
adopted with much success, this policy is designated la penetration. 
The opposite pohcy is that comjnonly known as dual unionism — 
called by the French s}mdicalists la pression exterieure, and b}' the 
I. Vr. AV. ''hammering from Vrithout." 

Boss. In a labor sense, one who employs or superintends 
workers ; a head man, foreman, or manager. The word is derived from 
baas, used by the early Dutch settlers in New York to designate 
a foreman or master. The term "sub-boss" is sometimes used in 
differentiation of a foreman or superintendent from the actual 
employer. A business agent or other imion official who wields 
considerable power is often called a "labor boss." (See Str-\w 
Boss; Gang Boss; Pit Boss.) 

[3S] 



Boss Miner. In coal mining, a working contractor who agrees 
with the OPERATOR to produce coal at a certain price per ton. The 
boss miner may in turn employ other miners and assistants to do 
the actual mining work under his supervision and instruction, or he 
may work with a partner. (See Butty or Charter-Master System.) 

Boss Stevedore. See Stevedore System. 

Boston System. See Factory System in the Garment 

Trades. 

Boston Trade Union College. Organized in March, 19 19, 
by the Boston Central Labor Union, with the avowed purpose of 
making "accessible to working men and women the study of subjects 
which will further the progress of organized labor." The college was 
founded upon a democratic basis, the committee in charge consisting 
of eleven trade unionists and five instructors. The latter, declaring 
for the right of academic freedom, ''assert that the function of the 
instruction in the college is educational and nothing beyond that." 
Each section of the joint committee is responsible to the body by 
which it was appointed and to the central labor union, before which, 
at open meetings, appeals may be made. Comfortable, well-equipped 
quarters were furnished by the Boston school board in one of the 
city high-school buildings. The classes meet once a week for two 
hours. A nominal fee is charged for each course. The membership 
is limited to men and women belonging to trade unions affiliated 
with the American Federation of Labor. English is the subject 
most frequently chosen by the students, with law, government, 
science, economics, and labor organization following, about in the 
order named. (See Working-Class Education.) 

Bouche Ouverte. See Open-Mouth Strike. 

Bourbon. See Reactionary. 

Bourgeoisie. This French term originally denoted the free 
citizen class in the towns, as distinguished from the aristocracy, 
on the one hand, and the working class on the other. The French 
socialists, however, extended the meaning of the term to include 
all the more or less wealthy classes, as opposed to the proletariat 
or working class, and it is in this sense that the term is used in 
practically all socialist literature. In the Marxian formula, it is the 
bourgeoisie (including capitalists, manufacturers, money lenders, 
land owners, etc.) who are pitted against the proletariat in the 
CLASS struggle for possession of the means of production and 

[39] 



distribution. (See Scientific Socialism; Communist Manifesto; 
Dictatorship of the Proletariat; Concentration of Capital 
Theory; Middle Class; Propertariat.) 

Bourses du Travail (Chambers of Labor). In France, local 
federations of working-class syndicats or trade unions. The first 
bourse dii travail was founded at Paris in 1887, and others soon 
followed. These first bourses were established by or with the help 
of the municipalities in which they were situated; they aimed at 
being for the laboring class what chambers of commerce are for 
the employer — general meeting-places and centres of organization 
for their respective localities. Municipal subsidies were secured, 
partly as election bribes but far more because the bourses were to 
serve as local labor exchanges. In 1892 the Bourses held their first 
Congress, and in 1893 organized the Fid^raiion des Bourses du 
Travail. In 1902 this federation united with the Confederation 
Generale du Travail, giving this latter body its first real impetus. 
When the C. G. T. began to develop its revolutionary character 
the municipal subsidies were in many cases withdrawn — a disaster 
from which recovery has been slow. But the bourses are still per- 
haps the most important centres of French trade union activities. 
They are largely used for propaganda work among unorganized 
workers, and serve as schools of "intercorporate solidarity." During 
strikes they are the rendezvous of the strikers, and in the case of a 
general local strike they direct the conflict. They carry on certain 
limited friendly society activities. Each local bourse serves as 
a labor exchange, as a club-room, as a library, as a lecture-hall. 
Its affairs are directed by a committee, to which every local syndic at 
elects a member, and by a general secretary. Each syndicat con- 
tributes to the support of its local bourse in direct proportion to the 
mmiber of members within the syndicat. (See Mutualite; Mai- 
sons des Ouvriers; French Labor Movement.) 

Boycott. Derived from the name of Captain Boycott, an 
Irish landlord whose tenants refused to deal with him in any way. 
No thoroughly satisfactory definition of the boycott, with specific 
reference to labor affairs, seems to have yet been formulated; it has 
been said that "scarcely any two courts treating of the subject 
formulate the same definition." In general, however, it may be 
described as an organized refusal on the part of wage-earners to 
purchase the products of, or otherwise deal with, an "offending" 
employer, the purpose being to compel compliance with some demand 
of the workers or to punish the employer for "unfair" acts or policies, 

140] 



This is known as the "primary" or "simple" boycott, being aimed 
directly at the employer who has offended the workers. When such 
action on the workers* part extends to a refusal to patronize or deal 
with other employers not directly concerned in the original dispute, 
in an effort to induce such employers to suspend business relations 
with the original offender, it becomes what is called the "secondary" 
or "compound" boycott. As few employers of labor sell directly to 
consumers, nearly all present-day boycotts are of the "secondary" 
or "compound" variety. In either case, however, the workers 
directly concerned not only withhold their own patronage, but 
commonly endeavor either directly or indirectly to induce the buying 
public in general and all other wage-earners in particular to adopt a 
similar policy. The term "negative boycott" is sometimes applied 
to such trade union devices or methods as the union label and 
FAIR list; while the boycott proper, as defined above, and the un- 
fair LIST or "we don't patronize" list, are classified as forms of 
"positive boycott." The collective refusal of unionists to work with 
a non-unionist or under an "unfair" foreman, or to handle material 
made by non-unionists, is often classed as a boycott; but in the 
great majority of cases the labor boycott corresponds to the main 
definition given above. Court decisions in the United States almost 
invariably put the ban of illegality upon labor boycotts. "In some 
cases boycotts have been held criminal offenses under the common 
law, or under statutes prohibiting interference with lawful business 
or employment, or prohibiting the use of intimidation. In a few 
states boycotts are in terms declared unlawful by statute. In other 
cases the courts have granted civil damages to employers injured 
by boycotts, while frequently injunctions have been issued to re- 
strain them. The element of combination in the boycott is especially 
emphasized by the cotirts. They usually hold also that, while a 
strike has evidently for its primary motive the improvement of the 
condition of the workingmen, the boycott on its face involves malice, 
the desire to injure another. Stress is also laid on the thought that, 
whatever the motive, the means — by deliberate attempt to destroy 
a man's business — are unlawful; that the right to conduct a lawful 
business is a fundamental right of liberty and property, and that 
a man may not properly be coerced to act contrary to his wishes in 
the management of his own business." On the other hand, however, 
the trade boycott — that is, the boycott of one dealer or manufac- 
turer by the concerted action of other dealers or manufacturers — 
has been often upheld as a legitimate form of competition. The 
attitude of organized labor toward the boycott is thus simimarized 

[41] 



in the report of the Federal Industrial Commission: "There is 
probably no union man who doubts the legitimacy of the boycott 
as a weapon of labor, or the necessity of using it. The broadest- 
minded and most conservative of the union leaders defend the right 
to use it, without hesitation or qualification, and regard the tendency 
of the courts to condemn it as one of the marks of the injustice with 
which they believe the working people to be treated by our rulers. The 
right to deal, or to refrain from dealing, with whomsoever he pleases, 
and for any reason which may appeal to him, is, they say, one of the 
most elementary rights of a free citizen. But if one man may select 
the persons he will deal with, two or a million may do so. The 
boycott is simply a common refusal on the part of a number of 
people to deal with a person whose action is believed to be antago- 
nistic to their interest." A novel and interesting use of the labor 
boycott on an international scale, for political purposes, was made 
during 1920 by the International Federation of Trade Unions, 
in an effort to coerce the Hungarian government into discontinu- 
ance of its bloody persecution of communists and labor leaders. 
(See Sympathetic Boycott; Railway Boycott; Danbury Hat- 
ters Case; Buck Stove and Range Case; Duplex Printing 
Press Case; Blacklist.) 

Branch. The smallest unit of a British national union, cor- 
responding roughly to the American local. It maintains its own 
branch committee, branch officers, and in some cases its branch 
funds. The branch, in addition to its constitutional position inside 
the national union to which it belongs, is generally the body affili- 
ated to local organizations of federal character, such as the local 
TRADES COUNCIL, or LOCAL LABOR PARTY, and (in some cases) the local 
federation of trade unions in a particular industry. In the larger 
trade unions which have a number of branches in the same town or 
district, such branches are also federated in a delegate body known 
as the DISTRICT council or district committee, which usually has 
considerable power and authority. The branch is nearly always 
based on the place of habitation of its members rather than on their 
place of woric, and in the larger towns there are usually several 
branches of the same national union. In the case of the miners, 
however, the branch centres around a national industrial unit — the 
coal-pit. (See Lodge; Single-Branch Union; Multiple-Branch 
Union; Governing Branch; Composite Branches.) 

Brazilian Confederation of Labor. See Confederazione 
Obrera Brasileano. 

[42] 



Bridgeport Plan. After the labor disturbances during the 
latter part of 191 8 in the machinery trades of Bridgeport, Conn., 
employers and employees worked out a plan for joint committees 
to deal with all matters of mutual concern and interest in the Bridge- 
port industries. This plan provides for the election of employees' 
department committees and employees' general committees, and 
prescribes by-laws governing the powers and functions and the 
methods of procedure of these committees, and also makes provision 
for a referendimi and recall of duly elected committeemen, and for 
amendm.ent of the by-laws. 

British Cooperative Wholesale Society. See Wholesale 
Cooperative Societies. 

British Housing Acts. The acute shortage of houses for 
the working classes after the war led the British government to 
adopt a definite housing programme, under the general supervision 
of the Ministry of Health. The first step toward the working out 
of this programme was accomplished with the passage of the Housing 
and Town-Planning Act, July, 19 19. This act made the local authori- 
ties responsible for providing the necessary housing accommoda- 
tions, but the government, having to undertake responsibility for 
the financial results, was to have complete control and supervision 
of all undertakings. The community and the nation were each to 
provide a specified proportion of the cost of building. In December, 
19 19, a new act was passed, the Housing (Additional Powers) Act, 
giving the Minister of Health authority under specified conditions 
to make grants for houses, or, in other words, to invite private enter- 
prise to cooperate and to offer it a subsidy for so doing. Under the 
new acts, the Ministry of Health is empowered to require the local 
authorities to prepare and carry out schemes for needed housing, 
and also, for a specified ntmiber of years, to pay to them out of 
State funds seventy-five per cent of any loss resulting from the 
difference between the economic rent on the increased cost of build- 
ing and the reasonable rent which working-class tenants can bear. 
The country has been divided for housing purposes into eleven 
regions, each with a regional commissioner, armed with large dele- 
gated powers, who works in close cooperation with the local authori- 
ties. (See Manchester Building Guild.) 

British Industrial Court. See Industrial Courts Act. 

British Labor Party. In 1899, largely through the efforts 
of the Independent Labor Party, the formation of an independent 

[43] 



organization for promoting the election of labor members to Par-. 
liament was decided upon by the Trades Union Congress. As 
a result of this, decision a body known as the Labor Representation 
Committee was formed during the following year. This was a federal 
body representative not only of trade unions and trades councils, 
but also of socialist and cooperative societies. In 1906 this body 
was renamed the British Labor Party. Except for a section which 
included the Independent Labor Party, the organization supported 
the recent war and took part in the coalition government. Under 
a new constitution adopted in 1918, individuals not associated with 
other socialist or labor organizations are permitted to enter the 
Party through membership in the so-called local labor parties, 
and to share in the election of five members to the national execu- 
tive. Of the remaining seats on the national executive, four are 
reserved for women, and the others are allotted to the national 
societies — labor, socialist, and cooperative. The principal purposes 
of the Party, as set forth in its constitution, are (i) "to secure for 
the producers by hand or by brain the full fruits of their industry, 
and the most equitable distribution thereof that may be possible, 
upon the basis of the common ownership of the means of production 
and the best obtainable system of popular administration and con- 
trol of each industry or service"; and (2) "generally to promote the 
political, social, and economic emancipation of the people, and more 
particularly of those who depend directly upon their own exertions 
by hand or by brain for the means of life." The Party is thus avowedly 
socialistic in its aims, representing the moderate or right-wing 
school of socialistic theory. It is affiliated with the second Inter- 
nationale. The membership of the Party exceeded three and one- 
half m.illions in 19 19. Since 191 8 it has been the leading opposition 
party in the Imperial ParHament. (See Parliamentary Labor 
Party; Labor and the New Social Order; Council of Action; 
Blackcoats; Woman's Labor League.) 

British Ministry of Labor. The administrative department 
(organized December, 1916) of the British government that concerns 
itself with the welfare of the laboring classes, including the super- 
vision of LABOR exchanges, UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE, TRADE 

BOARDS, and joint industrial councils; mediation, conciliation, 
and arbitration in industrial disputes; the preparation of labor 
statistics; etc. At its head is the Minister of Labor, to whom are 
attached a "Parliamentary secretary," two "joint permanent 
secretaries," a "second secretary," a solicitor, an accountant-general, 

[44] 



and heads of the following departments: Establishment, Wages 
and Arbitration, Employment, Industries, Council Secretariat, 
Intelligence and Statistics, Training, Appointments, Civil Liabilities. 
The three last-named are temporary departments. 

British National Industrial Conference. Early in 1919 
Mr. Lloyd George, the British Prime Minister, summoned some 
five hundred representatives of employers' associations and trade 
unions, to discuss in conference some of the more pressing national 
problems in connection with industrial reconstruction and labor 
unrest. At a meeting held February 27, 19 19, the Conference re- 
solved to appoint a joint committee, composed of employers' and 
workers* representatives in equal number, with a chairman chosen 
by the government, "to consider and report to a further meeting of 
this conference on the causes of the present unrest and the steps 
necessary to safeguard and promote the best interests of employers, 
workpeople, and the State." This joint committee's report, unani- 
mously adopted by the reassembled conference on April 4, recom- 
mended, among various other matters, the "universal" legal deter- 
mination and enforcement of minimum wage scales, a compulsory 
FORTY-EIGHT HOUR WEEK, obligatory RECOGNITION of trade unions, 
and the formation of a permanent national industrial council or 
industrial parliament to advise the government on all matters con- 
cerning industry. (See Industrial Unrest.) 

British Trade Union Organization. As a specimen of the 
elaborate administrative organization of some of the larger British 
national unions, that of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers is 
thus outlined in C. M. Lloyd's "Trade Unionism": "It has in daily 
attendance at its headquarters in London, a paid Executive Council 
of a Chairman and seven members, elected by ballot from the seven 
divisions into which Great Britain is divided. Side by side with this 
Council, and largely under its control, works the General Secre- 
tary with four assistants. For organising purposes there is a staff 
(under the direction of the Executive Council) of twelve Organising 
District Delegates, each elected for three years (and reeligible) 
from and by the district in which he has worked and resided for the 
twelve months immediately preceding his nomination. The duties 
of these Organizing District Delegates include the visiting and 
strengthening of branches, the attending of conferences, the inter- 
viewing of employers, and so on. There is also a network of Dis- 
trict Committees, varying in size according to the number of branches 
in the district. The Committee-men, who must be working at their 

[45] 



trade, are elected half-yearly (the President and Secretary annually), 
and are empowered, subject to the approval of the Executive Council, 
to deal with questions of trade disputes, wages, hours and conditions 
of labor, and so on, in their respective areas. At the head of the whole 
organization are the Delegate Meeting and Final Appeal Court. 
The Delegate Meeting consists of one delegate for every 3000 members 
chosen from equal electoral areas. It is only summoned in emer- 
gencies or to deal with matters vitally affecting the Society. It has 
power to alter or rescind any rule (due notice having been given to 
the branches) , but it must not abrogate any of the principles of the 
Society, 'unless thereafter forty per cent of the membership vote 
in favor of the change.' The Final Appeal Court, composed of one 
delegate for every 6000 members and meeting every two years, con- 
siders and decides all appeals against the rulings of the Executive 
Council." (For m^ain references to general details of British trade 
union organization, see Branch; Multiple-Branch Union; Single- 
Branch Union; Governing Branch; Composite Branches; Cen- 
tral Executive; Representative Meeting; District Council; 
Advisory Councils; District Delegates; General Secretary; 
Shop Stev/ard; Steward.) 

Broken Time. See Short Time; Straight Time. 

Brooklands Agreement. An important arrangement between 
operatives and employers which governed the English cotton- 
spinning trade from 1893 to 1905. It provided elaborate machinery 
for the adjustment of wages and trade disputes by mutual discussion, 
without cessation of work. (See Bad Spinning.) 

Brookwood College. At a meeting of trade union leaders 
held at New York in the spring of 192 1, plans were made for the 
organization under this name of the first resident workers* college 
in the United States. According to a formal statement issued by 
the conference, "it was decided to unite with the American labor 
union movement a force of education that will serve American labor 
with trained, responsible, liberally educated men and women from 
the ranks of the workers. The new college is not intended to act 
as a propagandist institution. Thoroughly in sympathy with the 
aims and aspirations of labor as a whole, the college will closely 
cooperate with the national and international labor groups, also with 
the various local colleges and schools that send to it working men 
and women who show promise as to need further education in order 
best to serve the labor movement and through it society." The 

[46] 



college will be established at Katonah, N. Y., and will be guided by 
the principles of academic freedom, student self-government, and 
cooperative living. (See Working-Class Education.) 

Brotherhood. A title sometimes assumed by a trade union — 
notably the various national or international organizations of Amer- 
ican railway workers, commonly known as railway brotherhoods. 

Brotherhood Cooperations. "For the purpose of maintaining 
the benefits of the rates, rules, and regulations now in effect, and for 
improving the same as conditions may warrant," the "big four" 
railway brotherhoods have a special form of agreement by which 
so-called "cooperations" are formed in conjunction with other 
organizations of railway workers. These cooperations function 
through "cooperative boards," each of which consists of the "gen- 
eral committees" of the various organizations affiliated under this 
plan for a single railway system. Where a cooperation is formed, it 
takes the place of the existing system federation, formed under 
the Cedar Rapids plan, for the particular line of railway involved. 
The cooperative plan is carefully arranged to give the "big four" 
control of all cooperations. 

Brown System. A plan of discipline for railway employees 
devised by George R. Brown, an American railway superintendent. 
It consists, in essence, of keeping a record of each employee in the 
service, with a method of debit and credit marks for delinquencies 
or special efficiency. The employee is not suspended for minor 
offences, but is discharged or promoted on the basis of his record 
as a whole for a specific period. The Brown systemx is sometimes 
spoken of as "discipline by record" or "discipline without sus- 
pension." 

Buck Stove and Range Case. An historic episode in Amer- 
ican labor annals, of particular importance with reference to the use 
of the boycott and the injunction in labor disputes. In 1907 
the Buck Stove and Range Company became involved in trouble 
with its molders. A strike and a boycott followed, the American 
Federation of Labor including the name of the company in its 
"We Don't Patronize" column, or unfair list, of "The Ainerican 
Federationist." A sweeping injunction against this and other actions 
of the Federation was secured by the company, and later three high 
officials of the Federation were sentenced to prison terms for viola- 
tion of this injunction. After legal proceedings lasting for more than 

[47] 



three years, the Supreme Court set aside the judgment of imprison- 
ment. 

Buck System. See Berkshire System. 

Buffer Employment. Temporary work provided for persons 
thrown out of jobs in a seasonal occupation or in a period of indus- 
trial depression or readjustment. Buffer employment usually con- 
sists of work upon public improvements of various sorts. 

Builders* Parliament. See Building Trades Parliament. 

Building and Loan Associations. This form of cooperative 
credit association, found chiefly in the United States, is intended 
to aid wage earners and small salaried workers in acquiring homes 
of their own. Small sums of money are collected on the instalment 
plan from all members, and then loaned to individual members who 
wish to purchase or build homes. (See Credit Cooperation.) 

Building Trades Councils. Local, district, and state bodies, 
representative of such trade unions in the building industries as are 
affiHated with the American Federation of Labor and its Build- 
ing Trades Department — by which latter organization the coun- 
cils are chartered. In the case of local councils (the most ntmierous 
and important type) it is provided that "the jurisdiction of this 
council shall completely cover the building industry either in erec- 
tion, repair or alteration, and this council is endowed with full 
autonomy over all matters affecting all workmen engaged in said 
industry, when in conformity with the laws and decisions of the 
Building Trades Department." The functions of such councils are 
to determine local jurisdiction and to discipline local unions for 
violations; to act for the locals in making local agreements with em- 
ployers; to act together in disciplining employers by strike or other- 
wise; and to assist employers in securing and maintaining monopoly 
of the field. Each council has its own officers and executive council, 
and as a rule one or more business agents who "have power to 
order all strikes when instructed to do so by the council or executive 
board." An effective part of the council's machinery is the "board 
of business agents," the members of which keep watch for each other 
of violations of union rules, formulate and present demands, and to 
a considerable degree control relations with employers. In addition 
to the local councils, district councils or conference boards may be 
formed "where two or more local unions of an affiliated international 
organization exist under the jurisdiction of this council." State 

148] 



councils may be formed and chartered by the Building Trades De- 
partment "in any state or territory of the United States or province 
of Canada, provided that a majority of the chartered local councils 
shall have made application therefor, and they shall have power 
to make their own laws in conformity with the laws of this Depart- 
ment." (See Trades Council — American.) 

Building Trades Department of the American Federation 
of Labor. Organized 1908, under a constitution of which the first 
two sections are as follows: "(i) This organization shall be . . . 
composed of national and international building trades organiza- 
tions, recognized as such, duly and regularly chartered by the Amer- 
ican Federation of Labor. Membership shall be confined to 
national and international building trades organizations that are 
affiliated with the Federation, and which are universally employed 
in the building industry, either in erection, repair, or alteration. 
(2) The object of this body shall be the encouragement and forma- 
tion of local organizations of building tradesmen, and the conferring 
of such power and authority upon the several locals of this Depart- 
ment as may advance the interest and welfare of the building indus- 
try; to adjust trade disputes along practical lines as they arise 
from time to time and to create a more harmonious feeling between 
the employer and employee; to issue charters to national and inter- 
national unions, state and local building trades councils for the 
purpose of attending to building trades matters." The delimiting 
of jurisdiction in the building trades is one of the most important 
functions of this Department. Its constitution stipulates that 
"each affiliated organization shall be required to submit a written 
statement covering the extent and character of its trade jurisdiction, 
and when allowed by the Executive Council and approved by the 
general convention, no encroachment by other trades will be coun- 
tenanced or tolerated." (See Departments of the American Fed- 
eration OF Labor; National Board for Jurisdictional Awards.) 

Building Trades Parliament. A recently organized indus- 
trial COUNCIL for the building industry of Great Britain. It differs 
from the Whitley plan in providing not merely for "a, permanent 
improvement in the relations between employers and workmen," 
but in its effort to build up "a new and better industrial order." 
It consists of 132 members, one half elected by the trade unions 
and half by the associations of building-trade employers. It makes 
decisions by a majority of the whole council, instead of following 
the Whitley council practice of requiring a majority on each side, 

[49] 



Bulgarian General Federation of Trade Unions. See Zen- 

TRALVERBAND DER BULGARISCHEN GeWERKSCHAFTEN. 

Bull System. It is not uncommon for American railroads and 
other quasi-public corporations to maintain a permanent private 
police force. This is known among workers as the ''bull system" 
— "bull" being a common slang designation for a policeman. In 
differentiation from a city or state police officer, a private policeman 
is usually termed a "company bull," "railroad bull," etc. (See 
Policing of Industry.) 

Bummery. After the split in the Industrial Workers op 
THE World organization in 1908 the Detroit or political action 
wing applied this derisive nickname to the Chicago or direct action 
wing — the present I. V/. W. The name originated in a popular 
I. W. W. song with a refrain beginning "Hallelujah, I'm a biun." 

Bureau International du Travail. See International 
Labor Office. 

Bureau of Labor Statistics. One of the five permanent 
bureaus of the United States Department of Labor. It was 
formally organized January i, 1885, as the Biu"eau of Labor in the 
Department of the Interior, and was made an independent depart- 
ment in 1888 as a "Department of Labor," but without Cabinet 
representation. In 1903 it was renamed the "Bureau of Labor" 
and placed in the Department of Commerce and Labor. Upon 
the creation of the present Department of Labor in 19 13, this bureau 
was transferred to it, and the title changed to "Bureau of Labor 
Statistics." The fact-gathering bureau of the Department, its func- 
tion is to gather, collate, and report statistics of labor, and generally 
to disseminate labor information. Besides an important periodical, 
the "Monthly Labor Review," the Bureau publishes numerous bul- 
letins, reports, monographs, etc., relating to all phases of the labor 
movement, both here and abroad. It aids in standardizing state 
labor legislation and administration, in establishing and reorganizing 
state statistical departments, in providing state labor biu-eaus, 
members of Congress, and other bodies and persons with needed 
labor facts, etc., etc. The principal officers of the Bureau are a Com- 
missioner of Labor Statistics and a Chief Statistician. 

Bureau voor de Roomsche Katholicke Vakorgenisatie 
(Bureau of the Roman Catholic Organizations). See Dutch Labor 
Organizations. 

[so] 



Bureaus of Labor. Permanent government offices for the 
investigation of labor matters, in particular the collection of sta- 
tistics regarding wages, hours, and conditions of labor. The first 
government bureau of labor was established by Massachusetts 
in 1869. Since then similar bureaus, under various names, have 
been established by the Federal government, by some forty state 
governments, and by nearly all prominent foreign governments. 

Bureaucracy. Literally, government by bureaus; in ordinary 
usage a term of opprobrium for the excessive multiplication of, and 
concentration of power in, administrative bureaus of any sort. 
Bureaucracy implies a minute subdivision of functions; inflexible 
formality and pride of place on the part of administrators; and 
official interference in many of the properly private concerns of life. 
The evils of bureaucracy are commonly considered to be inherent 
in any scheme of State socialism. Some of its characteristics are 
occasionally found within the labor movement itself — generally in 
the case of old and conservative trade unions of the craft type, 
where control has become strongly centralized. 

Bureaux Paritaires. Public labor exchanges in France, 
organized by an agreement between employers and employees. 
Great care is taken to preserve their character of impartiality. The 
governing board is composed of an equal number of mxCmbers elected 
by the respective interests, and the presiding officer belongs to neither 
interest. The exchanges are directed to receive demands for workers 
from employers' associations and to send employees directly to the 
office of the employer, not to the association making the requisition, 
in order to avoid any suspicion of recruiting labor through private 
exchanges. 

Burial Money. See Death Benefits. 

Business Agent. The paid representative of a local trade 
union or other labor body, whose function it is to look after all ** out- 
side" interests of the union, particularly the relations of union mem- 
bers with their employers. In some unions the business agent also 
performs certain duties ordinarily left to the shop steward, such as 
collecting union dues, detecting and calling attention to violations 
of trade agreements, and preventing the emplo3nTient of non- 
union workers in union shops. In addition, he sometimes fulfills 
the functions of an employment agency. "Employers who need ad- 
ditional journeymen apply to him in the early morning hours before 
he starts on his round of visits from one establishment to another, 

[51] 



and he dispatches such men as are out of work to fill the vacant places. 
As an ORGANIZER he seeks to persuade workmen to join the union. 
Frequently he acts as financial secretar}'\ Sometimes when the 
union pays sick benefits he visits sick members to determine their 
eligibility to receive such benefits." The office of business agent 
exists in only a minority of locals. A local must have considerable 
strength before it can afford the expense, and in many trades the 
need is hardly felt. The office plays an especially large part in the 
building trades. "In his capacity of employment agent for the union 
the business agent is able, if not quite upright, to serve his special 
friends, and so to make it worth while for micmbers who are or may 
be out of jobs to consult his desires. As the representative of the 
union in dealing with employers, he is able to bring the organization 
without the previous consent of the members, into positions from 
which it cannot easily retreat. In some unions he has power to order 
strikes. Even when this power is not formally granted, his advice 
to quit work will often produce the same effect. On the other hand, 
the business agent may sometimes take it upon himself to make 
agreem_ents with employers on behalf of the union. The union is 
likely to repudiate such agreements if they do not meet its views; 
but the employers blame the union in such cases, and consider that 
it has violated its obligations. So long as he holds his place, there- 
fore, the business agent has a large power for good or evil. The living 
of his fellow-members depends upon his wisdom and his honesty. 
But they realize it, and they watch him with the eyes of a jealous 
master. If they come to believe that he is either rash or foolish or 
dishonest his authority will be quickly ended." (See Walking 
Delegate; Trade Union Government — Local; Building Trades 
Councils; Agitator; District Union.) 

Business Engineering. See Scientific Management. 

Business Unionism. The functional type of labor organiza- 
tion which, in Professor R. F. Hoxie's characterization, "is essentially 
trade-conscious, rather than class-conscious. That is to say, it 
expresses the viewpoint and interests of the workers in a craft or 
industry rather than those of the working class as a whole. It 
aims chiefly at more, here and now, for the organized workers of the 
craft or industry, in terms mainly of higher wages, shorter hours, 
and better working conditions, regardless for the most part of the 
welfare of the workers outside the particular organic group, and 
regardless in general of political and social considerations, except 
in so far as these bear directly upon its own economic ends." Business 

[52] 



unionism depends mainly upon collective bargaining, favors volun- 
tary ARBITRATION and MUTUAL INSURANCE, and as a rule deprecates 
strikes and avoids political action. It tends to be conservative 
and exclusive, seeking merely to improve its own position within the 
existing economic system. The railway brotherhoods are per- 
haps the best exemplars of business unionism in the United States, 
although the type is dominant in the American Federation op 
Labor as well. (See Pure and Simple Unionism; Old Unionism; 
Corporatisme.) 

Button. See Working Button. 

Button Strike. Among American coal-miners, members of 
the union "in good standing" usually wear working buttons, 
issued by the union. In many cases these union members have 
refused to work with men not wearing buttons — thus precipitating 
what is called a "button strike." Such strikes were at one time of 
considerable frequency. 

Butty or Charter -Master System. Under this form of the 
CONTRACT system, oncc commou and still occasionally found in 
certain sections of the British coal-mining industry, different parts 
of the mine are let out to working contractors, who hire the coal- 
hewers to work with and under them. The ' ' butty-man " or " charter- 
master," as the working contractor was called, paid his gang a daily 
time wage, but was himself paid on the basis of output; hence he 
would naturally always have an interest in speeding-up the hewers, 
since the faster they worked the larger would be his profits. A 
modified form of this system is found, or was formerly found, in the 
anthracite coal region of Pennsylvania. The "butty system" is 
sometimes known as the "butty-gang system." (See Boss Miner.) 

Butty -Gang System. See Butty System. 

By-Laws. In some labor unions the working rules formu- 
lated by the national organization are supplemented by local or 
district "by-laws," which cover in more detailed form the various 
regulations in regard to terms and conditions of employment which 
must be observed by members of the union and by employers in the 
particular locality or district concerned. 

Bye-Turnman. In the British iron industry (and perhaps 
in other trades as well) this is the common designation for an extra 
or relief worker who frequents a particular works and is given habitual 
although irregular employment whenever he is needed. (See On- 
and-Off System.) 
4 [ 53 ] 



C. G. L. vSee Confederazione Generals del Lavoro, 

C. G. T. As most commonly used, these initials refer to the 
Confederation Generale du Travail, the leading labor body of 
Fi:ance. In connection with Spanish labor affairs, they refer to the 
Confederacion General del Trabajo, the largest labor body in 
Spain. 

C. I. L. See Confederazione Italiana dei Lavcratori. 

C. S. B. See Commission Syndicale Belge. 

Ca' Canny. This Scotch phrase, meaning to ''go easy" or 
act cautiously, is applied in labor circles to the practice on a worker's 
part of intentionally slackening the speed of production by various 
methods not readily apparent to the foreman or employer. As 
generally practiced, ca' canny is one of the milder forms of sabotage 
— a policy adopted to injure the employer and express dissatisfac- 
tion. This policy is indicated in the French motto, ''a bad day's 
work for a bad day's pay." On the other hand, however, ca' canny 
may be merely a form of protection against speeding up, or a measure 
adopted in a period of slack work to prevent or lessen unemploy- 
ment. It may also be used for the purpose of keeping up piece 
WORK prices or base time allowances. As distinguished from 
STRIKING on the JOB, it usually denotes a fairly continuous policy, 
rather than a method of dealing with a particular situation at a par- 
ticular time; although this distinction is not always maintained in 
ciurent usage. Ca' canny has seldom, if ever, received the sanction 
of trade union leaders, and is generally denounced by them when- 
ever practiced. "Go canny" is an alternate form of the phrase; 
while the term "go easy system" is often used in the same sense. 
(See Conscientious Withdrawal of Efficiency; Work-to-Rule 
Movement; Limitation of Output.) 

Caisse de Chomage. See Fonds Nationals de Caisse. 

[54] 



Caisse de Secours Mutuel. The fund of a French syndicat, 
or local trade union, from which sick benefits are paid to union mem- 
bers, is so called. Only a small proportion of the syndicats main- 
tain such funds. 

Call Book. See House of Call System. 

Camera del Lavoro (Chamber of Labor). In Italy, an organi- 
zation representative of the various labor bodies in a particular 
town or district, and corresponding in general to the French bourse 
DU TRAVAIL. Siuce 1 89 1 the camere del lavoro have been the chief 
centres and sources of Italian working-class activity. They collect 
infonnation about employment, promote new labor legislation and 
the enforcement of existing laws, and negotiate with employers, 
direct strikes, and perform various other functions. Until 1896 the 
municipalities contributed to their funds, but since that date such 
subsidies have been illegal. Not trade unions only, but cooperative 
societies, etc., are affiliated with the camere del lavoro. While at 
first non-political and inclusive in character, there has been a marked 
development of late among the camere to divide along the lines of 
the current political-social schisms, each faction establishing its own 
camera as a centre for political activities. Thus in Rome there are 
now four rival camere del lavoro, while many other of the larger 
towns have three. (See Italian Labor Movement.) 

Camps. See Labor Camps. 

Canadian Department of Labor. One of the main executive 
departments of the Dominion government, presided over by a Min- 
ister of Labor, a Deputy Minister, and other officials. This depart- 
ment administers the labor laws of Canada, fixes fair wage schedules 
to be inserted in government contracts; collects and classifies sta- 
tistical and other information relating to conditions of labor; and 
publishes monthly "The Labor Gazette" and periodically special 
bulletins on trade and labor conditions, prices, labor legislation, etc. 

Canadian Federation of Labor. See Canadian Labor 
Organizations. 

Canadian Industrial Disputes Investigation Act. A meas- 
ure (otherwise known as the Lemieux Act) adopted by the Dominion 
Parliament in 1907, which provides for the compulsory investi- 
gation of disputes in a certain class of industries "affected with a 
public interest" (coal-mining, pubHc utilities, etc.). The Act makes 
it unlawful to change the terms of employment or to declare a strike 

[55] 



or lockout in such industries without thirty days' notice or (if appeal 
is taken to the Minister of Labor within that time) while an investi- 
gation is going on. Upon application, the Minister of Labor appoints 
a special board to investigate the dispute and if possible to effect 
CONCILIATION between the disputants. This board consists of three 
members — one nominated by the emiployer, one by the workers, 
and an impartial chairman selected by these two or (in case of 
failure to agree) by the Minister of Labor. If the board fails to effect 
a settlement, it issues a report of its investigation and findings, 
relying upon the force of public opinion to bring the side at fault 
into acceptance of the "impartial" award. After such report is 
issued, the terms of emplo>Tnent may be changed, and a strike or 
lockout declared. This Act served as a model for the Colorado 
Industrial Commission Law and for similar legislation in other 
countries. 

Canadian Labor Organizations. The majority of trade 
unionists in Canada are members of local branches of international 
unions whose headquarters are in the United States or (in two or 
three cases) England. In 1920 there were 99 international unions 
with Canadian branches, the latter's membership aggregating 
260,000. A considerable proportion of such branches, with an 
aggregate membership in September, 1920, of 173,463, are federated 
in the Dominion Trades and Labor Congress, the "official" national 
labor body of Canada. This organization is modelled to a consid- 
erable degree after the British Trades Union Congress, being 
largely a mediimi for debate, with little if any control over indus- 
trial policy. It works in close cooperation w4th the American 
Federation of Labor — to which it is in part subordinate. The 
principal labor bodies of Canada opposed to the international plan 
of organization are the National Catholic Union, confined to Roman 
Catholic workers residing chiefly in the province of Quebec and 
claiming 35,000 members; and the Canadian Federation of Labor, 
made up of some twenty unions in Quebec and Toronto, which has 
made no great headway as j^et, having only about 5000 members 
in 1920. There are also other "independent" unions having none 
but local federations. Although the I. W. W. has always claimed a 
considerable Canadian membership, the radical labor movement is 
chiefly represented by the One Big Union, organized in 19 19 — 
originally as a secession movement from the Dominion Trades and 
Labor Congress. The One Big Union has made rapid headway, 
chiefly in the Western provinces, and in 1920 it claimed a member- 

[S6] 



ship of 70,000. The conservative labor movement of Canada is 
represented on the poHtical side in the various Independent Labor 
Parties which have been formed in every province except one. The 
radical elements are chiefly represented by the Socialist Party of 
Canada, a revolutionary socialist body whose main strength is in the 
West. 

Can't Strike Law. See Colorado Industrial Commission 
Law. 

Capital Sharing. A term sometimes applied to the plan of 
permitting the employees of an industrial enterprise to share in the 
ownership of the enterprise through the acquirement of shares of 
stock — either by means of purchase, often on easy terms or at a 
reduced ; ate, or in lieu of cash or deferred payments due the workers 
under some plan of profit sharing. When all the stock is owned 
by the workers, the term "capital shaiing" is of course not appli- 
cable; the enterprise in that case becomes a cooperative one. (See 
Labor Copartnership; Industrial Partnership.) 

Capitalism or Capitalistic System. A general designation for 
the latest stage in modem industrial development, consisting in 
essence of a system in which the comparatively few possessors of 
capital are the dominant economic power, owning and controlling 
the means of production; the mass of the people, although "free" 
laborers, being dependent wholly upon the wages allowed them for 
their work by the capitalist class. The effects of the capitalistic 
system upon labor are well simimarized in Groat's "Organized 
Labor in America" as follows: "Production is indirect. Tools have 
yielded to m.achines. These in turn have grown more complex 
and interrelated until machinery has a meaning somewhat different 
from machine. Further, machinery has merged into plants. These 
vast comp exes of capital goods dominate modem industry. In 
them is carried to a point hitherto undreamed of the division of 
labor and subdivision of processes. There are many meanings to 
such a situation. One is that labor has been made more dependent 
upon conditions. Time was when labor was the shaping factor in 
industry and tools and implements were assistants. Now the relation 
is quite reversed. Capital dominates and labor assists. This new 
situation is important in at least three particulars. First: there 
is a separation of the workman from his tools. These tools are now 
parts of an industrial plant. Without them labor is ineffective. 
With them production is enormously stimulated. But empty-handed 

[57] 



labor is at a tremendous disadvantage. Second: me:i formerly 
produced for purposes of consumption. The relation was very direct. 
Now production is much more indirectly related to consuir.ption. 
Formerly the laborer saw the result of his labor growing into a product 
the disposition of which, if not its consumption, would lie largely in 
his ow^n hands. Labor now works for wages, scarcely knowing what 
it is producing. Its chief concern now is not the 'creation of utili- 
ties,' but rather it is getting and keeping a 'job.' Third: (and natur- 
ally following from these two) the worlanan is dependent upon othe--^ 
for the opportunity to work." No one who wishes to think straight 
on economic and industrial matters should confuse "capital" with 
"capitalism." The former is a permanent economic entity; the latter 
is an artificial and probably transient system resulting from the 
private ownership and control, to the present time, of that entity. 
It is capitalism, not capital, which socialism and the revolutionary 
LABOR MOVEMENT Seek to aboHsh. Socialism, in fact, would enor- 
mously extend and strengthen the legitimate functions of capital; 
and the popular conception of a fundamental antagonism between 
"labor" and "capital" is merely a widespread fiction, based on false 
definitions and careless thinking. (See Absentee Capitalism; 
Labor; Surplus Value Theory; Exploitation; Profits System; 
Wage Slavery.) 

Captains of Industry. An expression often applied to em- 
ployers of labor on a large scale. It implies the conception of "labor " 
as forming the rank and file of a huge industrial army, of which the 
employers of labor are the directing and responsible officers. (See 
Entrepreneur; Labor Lieutenants.) 

Card Inspector. See Shop Stew^ard. 

Card Men. Those members of any labor organization who 
carry due cards, w^orking cards, or other proof of union member- 
ship "in good standing," are often so called. 

Card System. Among American trade unionists, this term is 
commonly used with specific reference to the system of transfer 
cards and travelling cards, by which members in good standing 
of a national union may secure entrance into any local of such 
union without the usual formalities and expense. In his book on 
"Admission to American Trade Unions," F. E. Wolfe says: "Through 
the mechanism of the ' card system ' a local union under the national 
pact was bound to admit worthy members and to exclude offending 
workmen of other unions. Each member in good standing by ob- 

[58] 



taining a 'card' thus secured a right to admission into any other 
local union. The advantage of excluding the expelled and anti- 
union worlanen of one local union by others was also obtained through 
this national cooperation.'* 

Card Vote. See Voting by Card. 

Casual Labor. Unskilled help, employed and discharged at 
frequent intervals, and dependent upon the varying demand of the 
LABOR MARKET from day to day, without any prospect of continuous 
employment. Such workers are commonly referred to as "casuals." 
According to Drage's "The Unemployed," casual labor "is found 
almost invariably to involve deterioration in both the physique and 
character of those engaged in it. Their physical strength is reduced 
by the alternation of longer or shorter periods of work with intervals 
of slackness and consequent privation. . . . The hopeless hand-to- 
mouth existence into which they thus tend to drift is of all things 
least conducive to thrift; self-reliance is weakened, and habits of 
idleness, unsteadiness and intemperance formed. . . . The effects 
of such casual work are even more marked in the next generation. 
Apart from inherited tendencies, the children of this class grow up 
without any training, technical or moral, such as would fit them 
to enter a trade, or if they entered it, to remain in it. They are forced 
to join the ranks of unskilled and casual labor, and thus, under the 
same influences which beset their parents, they not only become 
incapable of regular work, but cease to desire it, preferring to pick 
up a precarious living by means of odd jobs and charity." While 
all MIGRATORY LABOR is casual labor, the "casual" is by no means 
always a "migratory." (See Decasualization; Seasonal Occupa- 
tions; Reserve of Labor; Parasitic Industries; Under-employ- 
MENT, Port Labor Committees; Royals; Dock Wollopers; 
Shenangoes.) 

Ce-Ge-Te-ist. An advocate of syndicalism is often thus 
designated. The term is derived from the initials of the Confed- 
eration Generale du Travail, within which body the syndicalist 
philosophy largely developed. 

Cedar Rapids Plan. In 1895, representatives of the four 
principal railway brotherhoods adopted a joint agreement pro- 
viding that the chairmen of the grievance committees of the several 
brotherhoods represented on any one railway system might constitute 
a general federated committee for that system, with certain powers 
of independent action in the settlement of grievances, calling of 

[59] 



strikes, etc. This scheme of system federation is commonly known 
as the "Cedar Rapids plan." (See Brotherhood Cooperations.) 

Central Body. As generally understood in the American 
labor movement, this term denotes a cit}^ federation of labor (more 
commonly known as a city central), but it is also occasionally 
used in designation of a state federation of labor as well. These 
two forms of federation are sometimes differentiated as "local central 
body" and "state central body"; but, as a rule, the term "central 
body" denotes a city federation. 

Central Competitive Field. See Interstate Joint Con- 
ferences IN THE Coal-Mining Industry. 

Central Executive or National Executive. The governing 
council of a British national trade union is thus designated. As 
described by G. D. H. Cole, "National Executive Councils are mostly 
bodies which meet periodically at quarterly or even rarer intervals, 
and consist of members who are actually working at their trades. 
Such bodies naturally cannot superintend effectively the day-to-day 
work of their Societies, which falls more and more under the control 
of the Head Office officials. To the Executive, however, are referred 
matters of general importance, and especially all matters which 
cannot be d'ealt with in accordance with precedents already laid 
down. They are, in a sense, the supreme executive bodies of their 
Societies; but their supremacy may usually be seriously threatened 
by a strong-mxinded general secretary. This is not the case where 
the Executive Council is a full-time body, sitting as a permanent 
Cabinet of officers; but there are only two Unions in which such 
Executives exist. In these cases the Executive tends rather to re- 
duce the general secretary and the other officials to a secondary 
position, and to asstmie wide powers in the direction of the Union's 
policy." (See British Trade Union Organization.) 

Central Labor College. A British institution for working- 
class education in the social sciences — economics, history, sociology, 
and philosophic logic. It was founded in 1909 (originally in Oxford, 
now in London), as a radical secession movement from Ruskin 
College. Since 19 14 it has been controlled and largely financed 
by two prominent British trade unions — the South Wales Miners' 
Federation and the National Union of Rai waym.en. In addition to 
its residential courses, the college also carries on a system of tutorial 
lecture classes in other centres and a correspondence department. 
The students in residence do part of the housework of the college, 

[60] 



which is governed by the most rigid discipline. Up to this time the 
Central Labor College has been conspicuously a Marxian socialist 
institution. (See Plebs League.) 

Central Labor Union. See City Central. 

Centrale d'Education Ouvriere (Belgian). See Working- 
Class Education. 

Centralization, Decentralization. In the labor movement, 
these terms commonly refer to the amount or degree of authority 
vested in the central organization of a national labor body, con- 
sidered in relation to the authority vested in its local branches. 
If wholly or mainly vested in the former, the organization is said to 
be ''centralized"; if in the latter, it is said to be ** decentralized.", 
(See Autonomy.) 

Centralno Radnitchko Sindikalno Vetche (Central Trade 
Union Council). The governing body of the radical trade unions 
and workers of Jugo-Slavia, representing an affiliated membership 
of 250,000 in 1920. It works in close cooperation with the Com- 
munist Party. The Social Democratic workers of Jugo-Slavia are 
federated in a rival body called the General Workers* Federation, 
with about 10,000 members. 

Centre. That group in any organized movement or body which 
represents liberal or compromise opinion and policies, occupying 
a middle position between the radical left and the conservative 
right. Members of this group are usually called "centrists." 

Centrists. See Centre. 

Ceremonial in Trade Unionism. Many of the early labor 
organizations, both in England and the United States, were essen- 
tially secret societies, patterned in large part after the masonic and 
other fraternal orders of the time. The mystery which surrounds 
the masonic orders, the elaborate ceremonial, and the gorgeous 
regalia have proved attractive to many trade unionists, who still 
retain these features in their organizations. It is felt that rituals 
and ceremonies, particularly in connection with initiations, have a 
valuable effect in binding members more closely to the organization; 
while the system of "grips," "signs," and "passwords" helps greatly 
to exclude spies and other hostile elements from union meetings. 
The use of such terms as "lodge," "grand lodge," "grand master," 
*' chaplain," "inner" and "outer" "guards" or "sentinels," "war- 
den," "marshall," etc., is of course copied from the masonic orders. 

[61] 



Chambers of Labor. See Bourses du Tr^wail; Camera 
DEL Lavoro; Arbeiterkammern; Kamers van Arbeid. 

Chambre Consultative des Associations Ouvri^res de 
Production. See Associations Ouvrieres de Production. 

Chapel. A form of organization of long standing in the printing 
trades; consisting of all the printers in a particular shop or estab- 
lishment, who meet regularly to consider matters relating to wages, 
working conditions, etc. It is so called because of the fact that 
Caxton set up the first English printing press in a disused chapel of 
Westminister Abbey. The presiding workman is styled "father of 
the chapel." In the International Typographical Union, the chapel 
is in reality a sub-local, or the smallest unit of organization. A 
chapel is formed in each separate shop employing three or more 
workers. The chapel elects a chairman and a secretary, and the 
chairman is the representative of the employees in that shop in all 
transactions with the employers. He is bound to see that union 
regulations are strictly complied with, and makes a monthly report 
to the local union as to such compliance and as to the conditions of 
the shop generally. The chapel makes recommendations to its local 
union as to the advisable course of action in disputes with employers. 
(See Clicking System.) 

Character or Character Note. See Leaving Certificate. 

Charge -Hand. A petty foreman or gang boss is often so 
called in England. 

Charter Fee. One of the two m.ain sources of revenue for 
a national trade union is the fee charged for issuing charters to local 
unions when the latter join the national organization. The charter 
is in effect a certificate of membership, and the sum charged is in 
effect an initiation fee. The charter fee usually includes provision 
for a complete outfit of books and stationery, including a seal. 
In the case of federations of national unions, and similar federated 
bodies, the constituent units pay charter fees to the federal organiza- 
tion on practically the same basis. 

Charter -Master System. See Butty System. 

Chartism. A radical political reform movement in England 
during the first half of the 19th century, so called from the document 
(the "People's Charter" or "National Charter") in which the scheme 
of reforms v/as embodied. The movement played an important part 

162] 



in English working-class annals from 1837 to 1842. But while 
Chartism commanded the support of the vast majority of the manual- 
working wage-earners, outside the ranks of those who were deeply 
religious, it is doubtful if the trade unions at any time became part 
and parcel of the movement. 

Chasse aux Renard (Hunting the Fox). In France, where 
PICKETING is illegal, various clandestine methods are followed by 
workmen on strike to prevent scabs and blacklegs from taking 
their places. These methods are collectively known in labor circles 
under the slang phrase, chasse aux renard, or (in English) "hunting 
the fox." 

Check -Docking Boss. See Dockage System. 

Check -Off System. A method, at one time common in the 
coal-mining industry, by which union dues, fines, assessments, etc., 
are deducted by the employer from the workers' wages on pay-day 
and turned over directly to the officers of the union. In addition, 
the amount due from each miner in remuneration of the check- 
weigher and "check-docking boss" was often deducted in similar 
fashion. The term "check-off system" is also sometimes applied to 
the method of deducting from the worker's wages amounts due the 
employer for merchandise bought in a company store, rent for 
occupancy of a company house, fees for company doctors, and similar 
charges. 

Check Steward. See Steward. 

Checkweigher or Checkweighman. In connection with the 
common practice of paying coal miners according to the weight 
of the coal they produce, it is customary for the workers of a mine 
to appoint a paid agent who checks the weighing of coal by the com- 
pany, keeps a full and independent record of each man's work, and 
protects the miners* interests in all matters connected with the 
weighing process. The checkweigher system has played an important 
part in the history of miners' organizations. In England, after a 
bitter struggle lasting for several decades, the system was fully 
established by a Parliamentary act in 1887, confirmed in 1911. 
According to Webb's "History of Trade Unionism," "its recognition 
and promotion of collective action by the men has been a direct 
incitement to combination. The compulsory levy, upon the whole 
pit, of the cost of maintaining the agent whom a bare majority 
could decide to appoint has practically found, for each colliery, a 

[63] 



branch secretary free of expense to the Union. But the result upon 
the character of the officials has been even more important. The 
checkweigher has to be a man of character insensible to the bully- 
ing or blandishments of manager or employers. He must be of 
strictly regular habits, accurate and businesslike in mind, and quick 
at figures. The ranks of the checkweighers serve thus as an admir- 
able recruiting ground from which a practically inexhaustible supply 
of efficient Trade Union secretaries or labor representatives can be 
drawn." In England, the checkweighman has also the legal right to 
act as an inspector of mines. The checkweigher system prevails in 
some other industries also, where the workers' wages depend upon 
the weight or quantity of output. (See Turn List.) 

Chicago I. W. W. See Industrial Workers of the World. 

Chief Deputy. See Deputies. 

Child Labor. This term usually refers to the employment of 
children under sixteen years of age in any f onn of industrial opera- 
tions, where the primary motive is that of profit rather than of 
training. Even at the beginning of the 19th century, according to 
Francis A. Walker, children of five and even of three years of age were 
employed in English factories and brickyards. These conditions 
have gradually been improved, until at present the public conscience 
generally approves a minimum age-limit of fourteen years and the 
requirement of employment certificates until sixteen, with com- 
pulsory school attendance up to fourteen and from that age until 
sixteen if a child is not employed. In the United States child labor 
is employed most extensively in textile factories, particularly the 
southern cotton mills, and in agriculture. But considerable n-umbers 
of children are utilized in the manufacture of clothing, especially 
in sweat shops, and also in glass factories, as well as in a variety 
of other emplo3niients, such as the making of artificial flowers, feath- 
ers, neckties, cigars, paper and wooden boxes, picture frames, 
furniture, boots and shoes. Probably the most serious and far- 
reaching effect of child labor is the prevention of normal develop- 
ment, physical and mental. Besides being deprived of the schooling 
they would otherwise get, children are injured by confinement and 
sometimes worn out by overwork. In other cases the work is 
demoralizing because it does not call out the best faculties of the 
children, or leaves them idle part of the time. It has been found that 
children are much more liable to accidents in factories than are 
adults; also that overwork and strain of the muscular and nervous 
systems are much more serious in children than in adults, and that 

[64] 



children are more susceptible to the poisons and injurious dusts aris-. 
ing in certain processes than are grown persons. Besides the deplor-' 
able physical, mental, and moral effects of child labor upon the 
children, certain widespread economic effects of their employment 
must be considered. The most serious of these is the displacement 
of adults by children. Child labor must be counted as one of the 
important causes of unemployment among adults. For some par- 
ticular processes young persons are preferred to adults because of 
greater nimbleness or manual dexterity; but the principal cause 
which leads to their employment in place of grown persons is prob- 
ably the lower wage at which they can be hired. The competition 
of children with adults in the labor market can hardly fail to have the 
effect of reducing the wages paid to the latter ; and it has been found 
by actual investigations that, where child labor is most common, the 
contribution of the children is at least partly offset by a correspond- 
ing loss in the earnings of the adults. All states in this country now 
forbid the employment of children in one or more kinds of work 
until they have passed a minimum age limit — fourteen years for 
general factory work in all except five states. Some states set a 
limit of sixteen or eighteen years for certain dangerous occupa- 
tions. All the larger European countries have enacted similar 
legislation. One of the most important acts of the first General 
Labor Conference op the League of Nations, held at Wash- 
ington in October, 19 19, was the adoption of a draft convention 
prohibiting the employment of children under fourteen years of age 
in industrial undertakings. (See Child Welfare Standards; Home 
Work; Street Trades; Half-Time System; Keating-Owen Bill; 
Child Labor Tax ; Children's Bureau ; Hour Laws ; Night Work; 
Prohibited Employments; Factory and Workshop Acts; Fac- 
tory Inspection; Family Wage; Minimum Wage Laws; Con- 
sumers' Leagues; Blind Alley Occupations.) 

Child Labor Tax. The Federal Revenue Act of 19 19 imposes 
a tax of ten per cent on the entire net profits of any mine, quarry, 
mill, cannery, workshop, factory, or manufacturing establishment 
employing children under certain ages or outside of certain estab- 
lished hours of employment. The basis for the tax is employment 
in a mine or quarry of a child under sixteen years of age; or in a mill, 
cannery, workshop, factory, or manufacturing establishment of a child 
under fourteen years of age; or of a child between fourteen and six- 
teen for more than eight hours a day, or more than sLx days a week, 
or before six o'clock in the morning or after seven o'clock in the 

I65] 



evening. The law creates a Child Labor Tax Board, consisting of 
the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Labor, and the 
Commissioner of Internal Revenue, for the purpose of formally 
determining some of the important questions pertaining to the en- 
forcement of the law, which became effective April 25, 19 19. The 
immediate purpose of this tax is to make the employment of children 
in American industry unprofitable. A previous Congressional 
measure directed against child labor, the Keating-Owen Bill, was 
declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 19 18; and it 
was therefore necessary for Congress to base its attack upon wholly 
different grounds, as provided in its power to levy taxes. 

Child Labor Tax Board. See Child Labor Tax. 

Child Welfare Standards. In May, 1919, the Child Welfare 
Congress held under the auspices of the Children's Bureau of the 
United States Department of Labor formulated the following 
minimimi standards: (i) Age requirement of sixteen years before 
beginning work; (2) full time education between the ages of seven 
and sixteen, and part time up to age of eighteen; (3) certificate of 
physical fitness as a prerequisite to issuance of a working certificate. 

Children's Bureau. Created by act of April 9, 191 2, as a part 
of the Federal Department of Commerce and Labor, this Bureau 
was transferred to the United States Department of Labor 
when that Department was separately organized in] March, 19 13. 
The act creating the Bureau provides that it shall investigate and 
report upon all matters pertaining to the welfare of children and child 
life among all classes of our people, and shall especially investigate 
the questions of infant mortality, the birth rate, orphanage, juvenile 
courts, desertion, dangerous occupations, accidents, diseases of 
children, employment, and legislation affecting children in the sev- 
eral states and territories. Notwithstanding the miserly financial 
support accorded it by Congress, the Bureau has initiated and con- 
ducted a wide variety of acti^dties, the importance of which could 
scarcely be over-estimated. 

Childs-Drexel Home for Union Printers. A permanent 

home for sick and needy members of the printing and allied crafts, 
maintained since 1892 at Colorado Springs by the International 
Typographical Union. A gift of $10,000 from George W. Childs 
and A. J. Drexel of Philadelphia was used as a basis for the home, 
but most of the preliminary cost was met by the union, which also 
bears the entire running expenses. The home is open to all union 

[66] 



piinters who are recommended for its benefits by local unions and 
deemed eligible by the central board of trustees. No payment is 
made and no work is performed by the inmates. 

Chinese Exclusion Laws. Beginning in 1882, Congress has 
passed several laws the purpose of which is to prevent the immi- 
gration of Chinese laborers. Several classes of persons are specific- 
ally exempted from the provisions of the law. These are, (i) any 
Chinese laborer who is registered and who has "a lawful wife, child 
or parent in the United States, or property therein of the value of 
one thousand dollars, or debts of like amount due him and pending 
settlement," (2) "officials, teachers, students, merchants, or travel- 
lers for curiosity or pleasure," and (3) wives and minor children of 
members of the exempt classes. Chinese bom in this country belong 
to the class of so-called "native sons" and are, of course, entitled to 
admission at any time. Chinese laborers must be registered, and must 
obtain before departure from this country certificates showing the 
right to return, wliich, however, are good for only one year. Mem- 
bers of the second exempt class, officials, teachers, students, mer- 
chants, and travellers, must have certificates from their own govern- 
ment vised by a diplomatic or consular representative of the United 
States. All Chinese found unlawfully in this country are deported. 
According to the 1920 report of the Immigration Bureau, "the 
Chinese exclusion law has been modified by court decisions to such 
an extent as in large measure to defeat its purpose of preventing 
Chinese from entering the labor market of this country." (See 
Coolie Labor; Asiatic Barred Zone.) 

Chinese Labor in the United States. See Coolie Labor. 

Chinese Labor Organizations. Although labor in China 
can not be said to be organized in the sense that labor in Europe 
and America is organized, there have been in China from time im- 
memorial guilds which have played an important part in the life of 
the people. These guilds are composed either of natives of the same 
province or town, or merchants or craftsmen in the same line of 
business. They have, speaking generally, not concerned themselves 
so much with rates of wages or labor conditions as with the pro- 
tection of their members against official exactions and the rendering 
of assistance in money or kind in time of trouble. Of late years, 
and more especially since the war, these guilds have increased in 
number, and in a place like Shanghai they now embrace almost every 
form of labor, skilled and unskilled. Chinese trade unionism, in 
the Western sense of that term, began with the revolution in 191 1, 

[671 



and has made noticeable progress since 19 19. The movement 
centres chiefly in Shanghai and the ports, but it is still of a very 
weak and sporadic character. A so-called "All-China Federation 
of Trade Unions" maintains headquarters in Shanghai, although 
no definite details as to its scope and structure are available. 

Christelyk National Vakverbond (Christian National Fed- 
eration), See Dutch Labor Organizations. 

Christian Socialism. A movement to apply Christian ethics 
to social reform, and to supplant industrial competition by co- 
operative effort and mutual aid; originating in England about 
1 848-1 85 2, and led by Frederick Maurice, Charles Kingsley, and 
others. It is distinguished from scientific socialism in its aversion 
to the CLASS STRUGGLE, and from orthodox Christianity in its con- 
tempt for private property. The Christian socialists rendered im- 
portant aid to the English trade union movement of their time. 
Various forms of social theory exist in several countries today under 
the name of Christian socialism, differing not only from the original 
movement but among themselves. However, it is the original Eng- 
lish movement that is usually denoted by this term. (See Socialism.) 

Christian Unions. In most of the continental European 
countries, where the trade unions are predominantly socialistic in 
aims and policies, a more or less formidable labor element is organized 
in the so-called "Christian unions," which are fostered by the 
churches and are strongly anti-socialistic. Sometimes these unions 
consist wholly of Roman Catholic workers; but more often, perhaps, 
they are open to Protestants also. Occasionally, as in Holland, 
the Roman Catholic and the Protestant workers are separately 
organized. (See Black Unions; White Unions; Christlichen 
Gewerkschaften.) 

Christlichen Gewerkschaften (Christian Trade Unions). 
These German labor organizations were started in 1893, chiefly as 
a means of preventing the Roman Catholic workers from entering 
into the centralized unions (Zentralverbande) and thus running the 
danger of being permeated with Social Democratic principles. The 
Christian trade unions are at one v/ith the Hirsch-Duncker Gewerk- 
vereine in declaring that there should be perfect harmony between 
employers and employed, and their leaders are the relentless oppon- 
ents of Social Democratic ideas. Nevertheless, occasions have arisen 
when the members of the Christian trade unions have taken united 
action with those of the centralized unions in strikes and lockouts. 

[68] 



The Christian trade unions have made much more substantial 
progress than the Hirsch-Duncker Gewerkverine , though they are 
still insignificant in comparison with the huge Zentraherhdnde. The 
bulk of the members are miners, textile operatives, metal workers, 
building trades workers, and railway men. In 19 19 the Christian 
unions formed an alliance with the Trade Union of Non-Manual 
Workers and the Union of German Officials, for the purpose of oppos- 
ing class warfare and internationalism and promoting "national 
ideals." This alliance was reported to represent a combined member- 
ship of 1,700,000 at the end of 19 19. The Christian unions alone had 
a membership in 19 19 of one million. 

Citizens* Alliances. In some of the larger American cities 
this title is sometimes assumed by local associations formed for 
the chief purpose of opposing organized labor. Such an association 
does not restrict membership to employers, but admits citizens in 
all walks of life. The only qualifications are that "the applicant be 
not a member of any labor organization which resorts to boycotting 
or any form of coercion or unlawful force," and that he be recom- 
mended by two members of the alliance. These organizations are 
frequently started by employers to secure cooperation of citizens 
generally, and are considered more effective than associations 
composed only of employers in combating trade unionism in par- 
ticular localities. The membership is representative of all classes 
of citizens, and the executive committee is able to bring pressure 
to bear wherever it may be most needed. In some places there 
are two organizations, an employers' association and the citizens* 
alliance. Many employers are members of both, and they often get 
their trusted employees to join the alliance. 

Citizenship Training Division. See Naturalization 
Bureau. 

City Central. In the American labor movement, a delegate 
body representative of the various local unions in a single city and 
(usually) the outlying districts. "It embraces unrelated trades, 
and has no other bond of union than the general notion of the unity 
of the whole working class. Because of the lack of close relation 
between the employments of its members, a sympathetic strike, 
if it should recommend one, would not be an efficient weapon. It 
does not as a rule directly raise funds for the support of the contests 
of its constituent unions. Its actual economic activity is almost 
limited to the boycott, and to pressure upon employers enforced 
6 [69] 



by fear of the boycott. It has, however, a second sphere of activity 
in POLITICAL ACTION. The conditions of labor in pubHc employments 
offer a legitimate and important field for it, and there are many 
legal regulations which interest the working people as citizens, and 
upon which, perhaps, they can best exert an influence through some 
such organization." Delegates to the city central are usually elected 
on a proportional basis; there is commonly a permanent staff of 
administrative officers; and regular meetings are he!d weekly or less 
frequently. Most, but not all, city centrals are affiliated with the 
American Federation of Labor, and are entitled to direct repre- 
sentation in the annual conventions of that body. As a general rule, 
city centrals have no autonomous power, but exist for mutual dis- 
cusssion, education, and joint action in connection with local affairs 
involving or affecting labor interests. They are known in different 
cities under a great variety of names, of which "central labor union" 
and "city federation of labor" are perhaps the most common. 

City Federation of Labor. See City Central. 

Civic Federation. See National Civic Federation. 

Clarte. A French word meaning "clearness," "light"; the 
name of an international association of intellectuals, who seek to 
form a world-wide federal cooperative commonwealth or "an Inter- 
nationale of ideas working with and for the Internationale of labor." 
The organization was started in France soon after the close of the 
recent war, and it now has sections or branches in several other 
countries. 

Class Consciousness. According to the American socialist, 
Morris Hillquit, the inhabitants of every country "may always be 
divided into several groups of persons with reference to their source 
of income or mode of acquiring the material means of their existence. 
Within each group the single individuals may strive for the largest 
possible share of the common income; but as against all the other 
elements of society, each of such groups is interested in the main- 
tenance and increase of its special revenue or material wealth. Each 
of such social groups constitutes a separate ' class ' of society, and the 
characteristic features of every class are these : its individual members 
are united in their general economic interest with each other, and as 
a whole they are opposed to all other classes contending with them 
for their share of the national wealth." The existence of such classes 
thus creates the instincts commonly designated "class conscious- 
ness," "class solidarity," "class antagonism," etc., which play so 

[701 



large a part in the social movements of the times. (See Class 
Struggle; Bourgeoise; Proletariat; Middle Class.) 

Class Solidarity. See Class Consciousness, 

Class Struggle or Class War. The Marxian theory that 
modern industrial society divides into two main classes — the workers 
who do not possess, and the possessors who do not work; that the 
interests of these two classes are inevitably opposed; and that a 
conflict is steadily being waged between the two for ultimate domina- 
tion. While the theory of class antagonism was by no means original 
with the founders of scientific socialism, Marx was the first to 
look upon the class struggle as *'the driving force in social develop- 
ment" and to argue that socialism was the necessary outcome of 
the struggle between the two historically developed classes — the 
proletariat and the bourgeoisie. (See Class Consciousness.) 

V Class Unionism. This term is commonly used in two dis- 
tinct senses. For example, it is sometimes said that the American 
Federation of Labor and the Industrial Workers of the World 
are both representative of class unionism ; the one because it is mainly 
composed of skilled craft workers, the other because it consists almost 
wholly of unskilled "casuals" and "migratories. " Class unionism, in 
this sense, may be defined as the grouping of skilled workers and 
unskilled workers in separate and to some extent hostile labor or- 
ganizations. In another sense, however, class unionism is sometimes 
defined as the policy of uniting in a single organization all the wage- 
earners of one or more countries, skilled and unskilled alike, regard- 
less of craft, industrial, or indeed any other distinctions. The One 
Big Union ideal typifies this second form of class unionism. In expla- 
nation of the obvious contradiction between the two forms, it should 
be noted that the first definition of class unionism has reference to 
classes within the labor movement — i.e., skilled workers vs, unskilled; 
whereas the second form has reference to classes within society as 
a whole — i. e., wage-earners vs. non-wage-earners. (See Industrial 
'Union.) 

Classification. In a labor sense, the grouping of workers 
(in a single plant or a single industry) according to the various grades 
or kinds of work which they perform, as a basis for fixing wage scales. 
Classification may be determined by an employer or a trade union, 
acting independently, or by the two jointly, or by an arbitration 
board. It plays a particularly prominent part in the American 

[71] 



railway industry. (See Working Rules; National Agreements 
IN THE Railway Industry.) 

Clayton Act. A Federal anti-trust law passed by Congress 
in October, 19 14, containing certain sections relating to labor which 
supposedly removed some of the most serious restrictions upon the 
legal rights of trade unions. These sections first declare that the labor 
of a human being is not a commodity or an article of commerce, 
and that nothing in the Federal anti-trust laws shall be construed 
to forbid the existence and operation of labor, agricultural, or hor- 
ticultural organizations, or to restrain them from lawfully carrying 
out their objects, nor shall such organizations be construed to be 
illegal combinations under the anti-trust laws. The Act somewhat 
modifies the issuing and enforcing by the Federal courts of injunc- 
tions in labor disputes, prohibiting their use unless necessary to 
prevent irreparable injury to property rights for which there is no 
adequate remedy at law. Also injunctions shall not be issued against 
striking and peaceful picketing, or boycotting by peaceful and lawful 
means, and such acts shall not be held to be a violation of any law of 
the United States. In cases of contempt of cotirt arising under this 
Act the accused may demand a trial by jury, except in suits prose- 
cuted by the United States or in cases of contempt in or near the 
presence of the court. Owing to these provisions, the Clayton Act 
was at first widely hailed by labor leaders as "the charter of American 
industrial liberty"; but in the light of practical experience, it is now 
regarded with considerably less enthusiasm. (See Duplex Printing 
Press Case.) 

Clean Eight -Hour Day. See Eight-Hour Day. 

Clear Card or Clearance Card. See Transfer Card. 

Clearance Letter. A written statement often given to an 
employee at the time of leaving a particular employer, usually 
setting forth the length of time he has been in the service, the kind 
of work he has done, and why he is leaving. In some cases it is 
impossible for a worker to secure employment in the same occupa- 
tion or district without showing a "clean" clearance letter. Thus 
by openly refusing such a letter to a departing employee, or by using 
certain secret marks or forms of wording in letters that are given, 
it is alleged that employers are able to use the clearance letter system 
as a form of blacklist, in the case of "imdesirable" workers. The 
clearance letter is also variously known as a "clearance," "clearance 



paper," "clearance line," and "service letter." (See Leaving 
Certificate.) 

Clicking System. This term is used in the British printing 
trade in designation of the method by which compositors ' on a 
PIECE WORK basis share in the distribution of what printers call 
"fat" — that is to say, profitable assignments of work. An official 
known as the "clicker," frequently appointed and paid by the chapel, 
hands out the "copy" (manuscript) to the various compositors, 
and endeavors to see that all share fairly in the "fat." (See Com- 
panionship.) 

Clocking. The common English equivalent for what is called 
"timekeeping" in the United States. To "clock on" is to register 
the time of beginning work; while to "clock off " is to register the time 
of quitting work. "Timekeeping" in the British sense refers more 
particularly to the matter of attendance at or absence from work; 
"bad timekeeping," for example, consists in being frequently absent, 
either for one day or for several days at a time. (See Absenteeism; 
Timekeeping Committee.) 

Closed Camp. This name is commonly applied to a labor 
camp built upon land owned by the company that employs the 
workers who live in the camp. Because of this private ownership 
the company "not only exercises control over the local government, 
but dictates arbitrarily who shall be permitted to come into or pass 
through such communities." 

Closed Non-Union Shop. See Open Shop; American Plan. 

Closed Shop. In the early days of trade unionism, a closed 
shop was one "closed" to union members by order of a trade union, 
on account of a strike or boycott or because of a lockout on the em- 
ployer's part; by the workers* own decision it was "closed" to union 
workers. Gradually, however, this meaning has come to be entirely 
reversed. As generally understood among trade unionists today, 
the closed shop may be defined as "a shop in which only members 
of the union claiming jurisdiction are allowed to retain employment." 
In its simplest form, as enforced by an exclusive and selfish craft 
union, this is the prototype of the autocratic employer's so-called 
"open shop" — the shop which is open only to non-unionists. But 
in actual practice, most closed shops are conducted under agreements 
that require the union to be kept freely open on fair and equal 
terms to all competent workers in the trade. Thus a distinction should 

[73] 



be made between the "closed shop with closed union" (as repre- 
sented, for example, in the New York building trades unions), 
and the "closed shop with open union" (the prevailing type). 
Nearly all closed shop agreements carry a valuable consideration 
to the employer in that the national union involved undertakes 
responsibility for its local members, and in case of an unauthorized 
strike will supply the employer with other union men to take the 
strikers' places. But the closed shop is by no means as universal 
as the present outcry against it would indicate. In several of the 
largest and most strongly organized national industries it plays little 
if any part. However, in many industries, particularly where there 
is no employers' association or where the existing association cannot 
exercise strict control over all its members or the whole industry, the 
maintenance of union wages and conditions as well as the life of 
the union itself depend upon the maintenance of the closed shop. 
Some trade unionists use the term "imion closed shop" in prefer- 
ence to "closed shop," it being contended that what many employ- 
ers call the open shop is in reality a closed shop also — closed to 
unionists. This latter they designate "employers' closed shop." 
(See Open Shop; American Plan; Union Shop; Contract Shop; 
Preferential Shop; Immigration.) 

Closed Town. See Company Town. 

Closed Union. That form of craft organization which dis- 
courages applicants for membership by excessive initiation fees 
and other devices — the purpose being to maintain a monopoly of 
the work, in the particular craft and locality concerned, for its 
existing membership. Along with this policy of excluding new mem- 
bers, it necessarily seeks to prevent the employment of non-union 
workers in the same craft and locality. This selfishly monopolistic 
type of trade union is most commonly found in the building trades, 
where it usually operates under exclusive agreements with the 
employing contractors. (See Job Monopoly; Open Union.) 

Co -Employee's Fault. See Employer's Liability. 

Coal Mines (Minimum Wage) Act. A British Parliamentary 
enactment, passed as a result of the miners* strike in 191 2. It 
provided for the setting up in each mining area of a wages board 
consisting of employers and workers, with a chairman appointed by 
the government. Each board was required to fix a minimum wage 
for mine workers within the particular area involved. No penal 

[74] 



provisions were made for infringement of the established minimum, 
but such infringement could be made the basis for civil action. 

Coal Screening Laws. See Screening System. 

Code du Travail et de la Prevoyance Travail. The national 
governmental labor code of France, regulating working hours and 
conditions, the truck system, dangerous trades, etc. 

Coercion. See Intimidation; Picketing. 

Coffin Society. In the radical labor movement this term 
is often applied to the conservative type of trade union, in derision 
of the latter 's tendency to place special emphasis on sickness and 
funeral benefits. 

Collective Agreement. See Trade Agreement. 

Collective Bargain. See Trade Agreement. 

Collective Bargaining. The method or process of determin- 
ing the specific conditions of the labor contract — particularly wages, 
hours, and working conditions — by direct negotiation between the 
representatives of one or more trade unions, on the one hand, and of 
an employer or association of employers on the other. In the simplest 
form of collective bargaining, the union selects its representatives 
according to its own rules, and these deal directly with the individual 
employer. If, however, organizations of employers stand over 
against organizations of employees, somewhat more systematic 
machinery becomes desirable and is usually developed. But in 
either case, each side sends its best men to represent it. The agree- 
ment is a bargain reached in the same way as any bargain between 
buyer and seller; the process is one of "higgling." The representa- 
tives of the two sides do not constitute one board, acting by a majority 
vote, but each side acts as a unit, and negotiations continue until 
all are prepared to accept the compromise which is reached. In the 
broadest sense, it may be said that the chief function of collective 
bargaining is to establish and maintain *Hhe principle of uniformity 
in regard to all the conditions of work and pay where competition 
direct or indirect can take place between individual workers, and the 
principle of standardization, or restrictive regulation, by the group, 
of all changes in conditions of work and pay during the term of the 
wage contract." Properly conducted, with due regard for the rights 
and interests of each side, it constitutes an effort to substitute the 
democratic principle of negotiation and compromise for that of 

[75] 



indmdual autocratic control. "The chief advantage which comes 
from the practice of periodically determining the conditions of labor 
by collective bargaining directly between employers and employees 
is, that thereby each side obtains a better understanding of the actual 
state of the industry, of the conditions which confront the other 
side, and of the motives which influence it. Most strikes and lockouts 
would not occur if each party understood exactly the position of the 
other. Where representatives of employers and employees can meet 
personally together and discuss all the considerations on which the 
wage scale and the conditions of labor should be based, a satisfac- 
tory agreement can, in the great majority of instances, be reached. 
The system of collective bargaining is also highly advantageous in 
removing the occasions of minor misunderstandings and in facili- 
tating the correction of them. A large proportion of labor disputes 
originate in very unimportant matters. In the absence of the 
machinery and the habitude of peaceful discussion, misimderstanding 
grows into bitterness, and too often a prolonged cessation of em- 
ployment results. Where the general conditions of labor are carefully 
prescribed in written agreements as the result of collective bargain- 
ing, there is much less chance for differences of interpretation, for 
misunderstandings, and friction, while when differences do arise a 
spirit is likely to exist which makes amicable adjustment of them 
possible. Finally, it should be observed that the success of systems 
of collective bargaining is usually cumulative. The practice of 
meeting together in friendly conference develops into a habit. There 
is a constantly increasing mutual understanding and mutual respect 
between employers and employees." While collective bargaining 
in nearly all important national industries is now conducted between 
the representatives of trade imions and of employers' associations, 
it is a common complaint among employers that in cases where but a 
single establishment is involved the process is "collective" only on 
the side of the workers — the employer's side is that of a single in- 
dividual. But in this connection economists have repeatedly pointed 
out that in actual effect the large employer is a combination in him- 
self over against the combination of workers; and the fundamental 
purpose of collective bargaining, as of all other collective action 
on the part of labor, is simply to put the individual worker on some- 
thing like the same plane of economic strength occupied by the 
employer, in settling the terms and conditions of labor. ' ' Wherever the 
economic conditions of the parties concerned are unequal," according 
to Mr. and Mrs. Webb, "legal freedoim of contract merely enables 
the superior in strategic strength to dictate the terms. Collective bar- 

[76] 



gaining does not get rid of this virtual compulsion: it merely shifts 
its incidence. Where there is no combination of any kind, the 
strategic weakness of the individual wage-earner, unable to put a 
reserve price on his labor, forces him to accept the lowest possible 
terms. When the workmen combine the balance is redressed, and 
may even incline, as against the isolated employer, in favor of the 
wage-earner. If the employers meet combination by combination, 
the compulsion exercised upon individual capitalists or individual 
wage-earners may become so irresistible as to cease to be noticed. 
In the most perfected form of Collective Bargaining, compulsory 
membership becomes as much a matter of course as compulsory 
citizenship." Although the method of collective bargaining is not 
practiced or even favored by considerable ntimbers of organized 
workers, it is regarded by the majority as the chief reason for being 
of trade unionism. It has evolved into an elaborate scheme of diplo- 
macy which is designed not only to protect the worker's standard 
of life, but also to obviate as far as possible the resort to industrial 
war. But, like political diplomacy, it rests in the last analysis 
upon the coercive power of antagonistic classes organized for aggres- 
sion and defence. "The bargaining power of either side is the power 
to use the strike against the lockout, the boycott against the black- 
list, the picket against the strikebreaker, the closed union shop 
against the closed non-union shop, and so on. These are essential 
weapons, and no plausible verbiage or double meaning of words should 
blind us to the fact that these weapons are coercive, and are intended 
to be coercive, and, in the last analysis, will be used secretly 
or openly, as coercive, by either side." Collective bargaining in the 
trade union sense should be carefully differentiated from any plan 
of EMPLOYEE REPRESENTATION or othcr mcthod of negotiating with 
a COMPANY UNION or unorganized workers. (See Representa- 
tive Bargaining; Individual Bargaining; Agreement System; 
Joint Conference System; Common Rule; Compulsory Trade 
Unionism.) 

Collective Bonus System. The main types of individual 
bonus payment are described in the entry Bonus System. Under 
the collective bonus plan, the bonus is paid on the total output of 
a shop or department — or even of the entire works. According to 
G. D. H. Cole, the usual method of establishing a collective bonus 
system is somewhat as follows: "First, an attempt is made to ascer- 
tain the normal output of the shop or works for a given period of 
time, say a week; this normal output is ascertained by taking the 

[77] 



figures for a certain period during which the shop has been engaged 
on the work in question, either under time-work or under piece- 
work conditions. The ascertained average, or some total based 
upon it, is then taken as the standard output for the works. The 
bonus may then be paid, either on all output in excess of the standard, 
or on all output in excess of^a given percentage of the standard 
output, the addition being either on a flat rate for all such excess, 
or on a graduated scale rising as the total output increases. Such a 
collective bonus based on shop or works output is usually adopted 
in substitution for all other systems of payment by results. This, 
however, is not necessarily or universally the case, since the bonus 
may be paid on top of other piece-work or bonus earnings calculated 
on an individual basis. Where, apart, from the collective bonus, 
the workers within the group are time-workers, the bonus is extended 
to certain classes of men who are not themselves directly producing 
the output on which the bonus is paid, e.g., supervisors, inspectors, 
setters-up, maintenance men, etc., etc. Where some of the workers 
under the collective scheme are also individual piece or bonus workers, 
the collective scheme is often extended to cover not only these 
workers, but also the time-workers employed in the shop, the bonus 
being paid to all alike, usually in proportion to their time-rates." 

Collective Contract. This name has been given to the 
method (as yet largely in a theoretical stage) by which the workers 
in a factory or an industry contract to sell their labor as a unit to 
the employer. The latter pays a single sum. to the representative 
of the group, among which it is distributed according to some plan 
agreed upon by the members composing the group. The collective 
contract idea is one of the tenets of guild socialism. 

Collective Piece Work. This term is commonly applied to 
any arrangement under which piece work wages are paid for the 
collective output of a group of workers, instead of for the output 
of a single worker. If the amount paid is divided equally among 
all the members of the group, the arrangement is more properly 
known as cooperative piece work. If the amount is paid to an 
intermediary who himself employs the individual workers and takes 
a profit on their work, the arrangement is a form of the contract 
SYSTEM. In the latter case, the intermediary (the contractor) may 
pay his workers time wages; but nevertheless, from the standpoint 
of the owner of the industry, the arrangement is one of collective 
piece work. According to G. D. H. Cole, a clear distinction must be 
made between the two forms of collective piece work known as 

[78] 



**job piece work" and "shop piece work." ''In the former, the 
collective system is usually adopted because it is not possible to 
divide the product of a group of men employed on a single job — 
i.e., the narrowest practicable basis for payment by results is 
adopted. In the latter, the reason for a collective system usually 
lies not in the impossibility of individual payment by results, but 
in the desire to provide a collective stimulus to output for the whole 
shop, in preference to a series of distinct stimuli to individual workers 
in the shop." Collective piece work is sometimes called "group 
piece work" and "gang piece work." 

Collectivism. In common usage, no very definite or specific 
meaning seems to attach to this term. Sometimes it is used to ex- 
press the purely economic basis of socialism, sometimes in a sense 
synonymous with socialism as a whole. But in general it may be 
taken as denoting the opposite of individualism — in other words, 
the theory or belief that the affairs of a community, particularly 
its industrial affairs, should be managed and controlled in a collective 
way, by the community as a whole, rather than by separate and com- 
petitive individual effort. In regard to capital, for example, it would 
transform all private competing capitals into a united collective 
capital, to be used for the profit of the entire community. The 
collectivist, whether in trade unionism or in politics, "insists on the 
need for a conscious and deliberate organization of society, based, 
not on vested interests or the chances of the fight, but on the scien- 
tifically ascertained needs of each section of citizens . . . such a 
conscious adjustment of the resources of the community to its needs 
as will result in its highest possible efficiency." (See Socialization.) 

Collectors. In certain British trades, as for example, cotton- 
weaving, these are officials employed by trade unions to go from 
house to house and collect the members' contributions or dues. They 
are remunerated by a percentage on their collections. Though not 
strictly salaried officials, they serve as trade union recruiting agents, 
as well as intermediaries between members and the central office, 
for complaints, appeals, and the circulation of information. (See 
Shop Steward.) 

Color Line in Trade Unionism. That a large percentage of 
the negro workers in American industry are still unorganized is due 
in part at least to the drawing of the "color line" by certain national 
or international unions. The most prominent example of such dis- 
crimination is found in the case of the great railway brotherhoods, 

[79] 



which consistently exclude negro workers. The American Federa- 
tion OF Labor formerly refused to charter any national union which 
excluded colored workers, but it has since been obliged to recede 
from this position — although never formally renouncing it. Several 
unions, in their constitutions, specially forbid any distinction of 
race. The Hotel Employees receive colored persons, but organize 
them in separate locals. The Tobacco Workers, although their 
membership is largely in the South, declare in their constitution 
that they "will draw no line of distinction between creed, color or 
nationality," but will ''work hand in hand for the common good of 
all." The color question has, however, caused some friction in the 
labor organizations of the southern states. In the earlier days of 
the labor movement there, the democratic feeling among the few 
trade unionists was strong enough to bring whites and negroes even 
into the same local meeting rooms. It is strong enough still in some 
trades and in some places. As the unions have grown, however, 
separate locals have been demanded. Finally, in some places the 
CITY CENTRAL bodies havc rejected colored delegates. While there 
are still many places in the South where whites and negroes meet 
on an absolute equality in the labor organizations, there are others 
where not only separate local unions but separate city federations 
have become necessary. (See South African Labor Movement.) 

Colorado Industrial Commission Law. An act passed by 
the Colorado state legislature in 1915, and popularly known as the 
** can't strike law." It is modelled largely after the Canadian 
Industrial Disputes Investigation Act; but whereas this latter 
applies only to public utilities, the Colorado law applies to all indus- 
tries within the state. It sets up a commission for the investigation 
of industrial disputes, and provides that "Employers and employees 
shall give at least thirty days' notice of intended change affecting 
conditions of employment with respect to wages or hours; and, in 
every case where a dispute has been made the subject of an investi- 
gation, hearing, or arbitration by the commission, or the board, 
until the dispute has been finally dealt with by such commission, or 
board, neither of the parties nor the employees affected shall alter 
the conditions of emplo3rment with respect to wages or hours, or 
on account of the dispute, do, or be concerned in doing, directly or 
indirectly, anything in the nature of a lockout or strike, or a suspen- 
sion or dicontinuance of work or emplo3rment; but the relationship 
of employer and employee shall continue uninterrupted by the dis- 
pute, or anything arising out of the dispute." Punishment by fine 

[80] 



IS provided for any direct infringement of the above stipulations"; 
and punishment by fine or imprisonment or both is provided for any 
incitement, encouragement, or aid to infringement. The more 
drastic provisions of the act have so far been largely a dead letter, 
but all efforts of organized labor to have what are called the ''in- 
voluntary servitude" sections repealed remain as yet unsuccessful. 

Colorado Plan. See Rockefeller Plan. 

Combination Acts. British Parliamentary measures of 1799 
and 1800, which prohibited under heavy penalties all combinations 
of wage-earners. Before 1799 British legislative acts concerning 
industrial relations were (to quote Dr. Groat) ''regarded as a part 
of the general policy of individual regulation applicable alike, in 
theory, to both employers and their journeymen. The several 
statutes dealt with particular groups of workmen wherever and when- 
ever the occasion required. In the closing period of the century all 
these several acts were gathered into one general statute in which 
all combinations whatsoever were declared illegal. This law was re- 
enacted in an amended form in the following year, and from 1800 for 
a quarter of a century it stood not simply as a codification of previous 
acts but as a radical departiu-e from former lines of legislation." 
The Combination Acts were used as instruments for savage perse- 
cution *of the English working class, and mark the lowest pitch of 
degradation to which that class ever fell. They were repealed in 
1824, largely through the efforts of Francis Place and Joseph Htime 
— the former a master tailor and the latter a member of Parliament. > 

Combination Card. Instead of issuing separate due cards, 

TRANSFER CARDS, TRAVELLING CARDS, LOAN CARDS, CtC, SOmC Amer- 
ican trade unions issue a single "combination card" which serves 
the purpose of two or more of the separate cards above mentioned. 

Comisia Generala a Sindicatelur diu Rumania (General 
Trade Union Commission of Roiimania). A central executive body 
which represents the Roumanian labor movement on the industrial 
side, as the Social Democratic Labor Party represents it on the 
political side. The two organizations work in close cooperation. 
The semi-feudal land system in Roumania, combined with reactionary 
governmental policies, has given the labor movement a decidedly 
revolutionary character. The socialist party "opposed Roimianian 
intervention in the v/ar (successfully, till August, 19 16), and took 
part in the Zimmerwald movement. The war drove the organiza- 
tion underground through the combined repression of the German, 

[81] 



military authorities over three-quarters of the country and the 
Roumanian government in the remaining area. In December, 191 8, 
a general strike led to the wholesale arrest of the executive of the 
socialist party and the Trade Union Commission, and the govern- 
ment has since maintained its power by a reign of terror, which 
increased under the military regime of General Averescu." 

Comite Confederale (Confederal Committee). See Confed- 
eration Generale du Travail. 

Commission Syndicale Beige (Belgian Trade Union Commis- 
sion). The central national executive body of the Belgian socialist 
trade unions. It is actually a section of the Parti Ouvrier Belge 
or Belgian Labor Party, and includes among its members not only 
delegates of the affiliated trade unions but representatives of the 
pglitical Labor Party and also of certain independent unions (syn- 
dicats independants) ; the full name of the organization being Com- 
mission Syndicale du Parti Ouvrier et des Syndicats Independants. 
The Commission holds an annual Congress for the consideration of 
important matters. Thirty-one national organizations, with a total 
combined membership of over 720,000, were represented at the nine- 
teenth Congress, held October, 1920. (See Belgian Trade Unions.) 

Commission Syndicale de Luxemburg (Luxemburg Trade 
Union Commission), The central national executive board for the 
leading labor organizations of the grand duchy of Luxemburg, repre- 
senting 27,000 members in 1920. Trade unionism in Luxemburg 
is of very recent growth, dating only from 1903. In September, 1920, 
according to the ** Labor International Handbook," "a law was 
passed giving the workshop councils the right to participate in the 
management of industry. French and Belgian capital, which has 
a controlling voice in the industry of the country, demanded the 
abolition of the councils. In January, 1921, following on a lockout 
of several hundred foundry workers, the workers occupied the mines, 
workshops, and foundries. The French garrison, however, which 
had been retained in the country despite trade union protests, sup- 
pressed the Works Councils." 

Commissioners of Conciliation. See Conciliation Division. 

Commodity Theory of Labor. It has long been a generali- 
zation among a large class of employers and economists that "labor" 
is a commodity, to be bought and sold according to the same prin- 
ciples that govern the exchange of other commodities. Organized 

[82] 



labor has always vigorously resisted this view, holding that "labor" 
cannot be separated from the body and spirit of the laborer, and that 
these factors must be considered and provided for in all industrial 
relations. ''The cry for the abolition of the wage system" now 
voiced by organized labor in every industrial country is, according 
to G. D. H. Cole, "a cry for the destruction of the whole idea that 
labor is a commodity, to be bought and sold like any other commodity, 
that labor has its market price, settled by supply and demand, 
by the higgling of the market, or what not, and not by any idea of 
human need or social justice, or even of service rendered. It is not 
denied that, nowadays, labor is treated as a commodity, and bought 
and sold with regard only to the advantage of the purchaser and 
the economic need of the seller; but it is maintained that this state 
of things is wasteful, degrading and preventable. Capitalism buys 
in the cheapest and sells in the dearest market ; and it buys its labor 
on exactly the same terms as its non-human commodities. But 
essentially Labor differs in nature from commodities, not merely 
because, if it is not used, it is being wasted — that applies equally 
to a machine — not merely because it may be made more or less 
efficient as more or less is spent on it — that too would apply to a 
factory as a whole, and not merely to the labor in it — but because 
it is human, and the value of humanity is not a market value, though 
humanity may have, in a bad social system, a market price. The 
wage system must be abolished in the sense that it must be made 
impossible merely to buy labor as cheaply as possible, irrespective 
of its need or service; instead. Labor must share fairly in what the 
community produces, on a basis partly of need and partly of service, 
but never of market price." The deep-rooted conception of labor 
as a commodity or article of commerce, and of the laborer as a sort 
of automatic machine, is unconsciously revealed in the common des- 
ignation of workers as "hands." (See Clayton Act; Limitation 
OF Output; Labor Market; Strike.) 

Commodity Wages. See Wages. 

Common Employment Doctrine. The common-law principle 
more often known as the "fellow servant rule," in connection with 
employer's liability, is sometimes so called. By this legal refine- 
ment, which dates only from 1837, and which successive judicial 
decisions have engrafted upon the common law, a workman who 
suffered injury through the negligence of some other person in the 
same emplo3mient was precluded from recovering that compensation 
from the common employer which a stranger, to whom the same 

[83 1 



accident had happened, could claim and enforce. (See Fellow 
Servant Laws.) 

Common Labor. Unskilled workers employed for such rough 
manual labor as that largely required in railway construction, min- 
ing, irrigation work, ship loading, limibering, the steel industry, 
farming, etc. (See Migratory Labor; Casual Labor; Unskilled 
Labor; Day Laborer; Sand-Hog; Mucker; Hunky; Wop; Navvy; 
Strappers.) 

Common Rule. Mr. and Mrs. Webb use this term in designation 
of one of the two main devices or expedients by which trade unionism 
aims to maintain and improve the conditions of employment. "The 
Standard Rate, the Normal Day, and Sanitation and Safety 
are but different forms of one principle — the settlem.ent, whether 
by Mutual Insurance, Collective Bargaining, or Legal En- 
actment, of minimum conditions of employment by Common Rules 
applicable to whole bodies of workers. All these Regulations are 
based on the assumption that when, in the absence of any Common 
Rule, the conditions of employment are left to 'free competition,' 
this always means, in practice, that they are arrived at by Individual 
Bargaining between contracting parties of very unequal economic 
strength. Such a settlement, it is asserted, invariably tends, for the 
mass of the workers, toward the worst possible conditions of labor — 
ultimately, indeed, to the barest subsistence level — whilst even the 
exceptional few do not permanently gain as much as they otherwise 
could. We find accordingly that the Device of the Common Rule 
is a universal feattire of Trade Unionism, and that the assimiption 
on which it is based is held from one end of the Trade Union world 
to the other." The device of the common rule by no means aims at 
establishing a general common standard for all industries. Thus 
(to quote from George O'Brien's "Labor Organization") "there is 
no attempt made to fix the same minimum wage for all workmen, 
skilled or unskilled, in every industry in the country, nor is there any 
suggestion that workmen in all employments should work the same 
nimiber of hours. Trade unionists themselves would be the first 
to resent the suggestion that highly skilled and efficient craftsmen 
should be placed on the same basis of employment with unskilled 
laborers. What the common rule seeks to attain is that within a 
particular craft or a particular industry common conditions of em- 
ployment shall prevail. The basis upon which the common rule is 
established rests upon one of three fundamental principles: the 
principle that vested interests should be respected ; the principle that 

[84] 



the supply of labor should be regulated to meet the demand; and the 
principle of a minimum wage." (See Restriction of Numbers; 
Supply and Demand, Law of.) 

Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration. 

A tribunal, estabHshed in 1904, having jurisdiction and compulsory 
authority in any trade or industrial dispute that affects two or more 
states of the Australian commonwealth. It is presided over by a 
Justice of the High Court of Australia. It exercises extensive powers 
of punishment by fines and by ''de-registration" — the process under 
which a trade union or employers' association is barred from the 
benefits of the court. According to Commons and Andrews, "the 
recent history of the Commonwealth Court of Arbitration has been 
marked by more explicit definition of its powers and the establish- 
ment of precedents. Two amendments to the Commonwealth act 
were made in 191 5 and 19 18. The earlier amendment enabled a 
justice of the high court to decide finally whether a dispute extended 
beyond the limits of any one state, which was the chief limitation 
of the powers of the court of arbitration. The court affirmed the 
right of free bargaining in the case of workers refusing to accept 
hire at the minimum wage, when they believed their skill rated a 
higher wage. In the consideration of minimum wage principles 
during the war, the court continued its policy of basing the minimum 
on a standard of living. The tendency, however, was to make the 
wages of the skilled and unskilled workers meet; the basic wage was 
increased, but the secondary wage was increased only by the pre- 
war margin between the two scales, not proportionally. One of the 
most fruitful features of the court's power is its right to appoint 
'boards of reference,' by means of which the meeting of representa- 
tives of unions with employers is encouraged. Of late these 'boards 
of reference' have tended to develop along the lines of the Whitley 
suggestions in Great Britain." 

Communism. The economic theory or doctrine that all 
property should be held in common, by the community as a v/hole, 
for the equal benefit of all; and that all socially necessary labor 
should be shared by all members of the community, according to 
individual abilities and capacity. When accomplished by voluntary 
cooperation, instead of through the instrumentality of the State 
or other coercive agency, this is generally known as "anarchist 
communism" — which is more essentially a form of anarchism than 
of communism. When the State is the controlling factor, it is not 
altogether easy to distinguish communism from socialism. Indeed, 

7 ' [85] 



Karl ]\Iarx, the ''father of scientific socialism," used the teiTii "com- 
munism ' ' in general designation of his theories ; and the most uncom- 
promising disciples of Marx today, the Rtissian Bolshevists, call 
them_selves " comm.unists " — using this term to distinguish them- 
selves from the nationalist or parliamentarian "social democrats." 
In general it may be said that communism differs from socialism 
chiefly in that it contemplates public or collective ownership of all 
forms of property, except perhaps the merest personal effects; whereas 
under socialism only the instruments of production and exchange 
would be held in common, and a considerable measure of private 
ownership would still exist. Far from being a malignant doctrine, as 
many suppose, communism is in fact the most altruistic of all social 
theories. (See Fourierism; Bolshevism; Spartacans; Communist 
Internationale . ) 

Communist Internationale. The third Internationale, 
organized at Moscow in March, 19 19, is so called. It was formed 
to "unite all revolutionary parties in the world proletariat," 
and to purge the international socialist movement of all "oppor- 
tunistic, social-patriotic, and centrist elements." Thus it bitterly 
opposes and is opposed by the moderate second Internationale and 
by those members of the so-called Centre in the socialist movement 
who have abandoned the second Internationale but still withhold 
allegiance to the third. In the constitution adopted at its second 
(1920) Congress it is stated that this "new international associa- 
tion of workers is established for the purpose of organizing common 
action between the vv^orkers of various cou.ntries w^ho are striving 
toward a single aim: the overthrow of capitalism, the establish- 
ment of the dictatorship of the proletariat and of the Inter- 
national Soviet Republic, the complete abolition of classes and the 
realization of Socialism — as the first step to Communist society.'* 
A "world congress" meeting "not less frequently than once a year" 
is the supreme governing body of the Communist Internationale. 
This congress elects an executive committee, which serves as the 
principal authority between meetings of the congress. The Com- 
munist Internationale is also variously known as the "Moscow," 
"Red," and "Bolshevik" Internationale. (See Zimmerwald ]\Iove- 
ment; Moscow International ComiMUNIst AIanifesto; Lenin's 
Twenty-One Conditions; International Council of Trade 
and Industrial Unions; Young Communist Internationale.) 

Communist Labor Party of North America. See Socialist 
Party of the United States; United Communist Party. 

F861 



Communist Manifesto. This famous document, which has 
long formed the "bible" of the sociaHst working-class movement, 
was written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels and published early 
in 1848. It is mainly an exposition and discussion of the two oppos- 
ing classes in modem industrial society, the bourgeoisie and the 
PROLETARIAT, dealing with the historical conditions under which 
they have developed and forecasting their probable future evolution. 
(See Scientific Socialism.) 

Communist Party of America. Organized at Chicago in 
19 19 by left-wing secessionists from the Socialist Party of America 
— chiefly Slavic members of the socialist movement. These latter out- 
number their English-speaking comrades, and dominate the Party's 
policies, which are revolutionary in character. In 1920 a section of 
this party seceded from the organization, and united with the Com- 
munist Labor Party of North America to form the United Com- 
munist Party. 

Communist Party of Great Britain. Formed in August, 
1920, as a merger of various small revolutionary groups in the British 
socialist movement. It is affiliated with the third Internationale. 

Communist Saturdays. See Subbotnik. 

Companionship. In the English printing trade, a team of 
compositors who work together on a piece work basis. The "com- 
panionship" usually appoints its own "clicker." (See Clicking 
System.) 

Company Bull. See Bull System. 

Company Council. Ordinarily a "joint" works committee 
— one that is representative of both the workers and the manage- 
ment of a single establishment. The terms "plant council," "joint 
plant council," "joint conference council," etc., are sometimes used 
in a similar, or practically similar, sense. 

Company Doctor. It is not uncommon for large industrial 
concerns, particularly those operating in isolated communities, to 
employ a "company doctor" for the purpose of attending sick or 
injured employees, his fees being often deducted from the worker's 
wages. Some states have laws on this subject; in Tennessee, for 
example, employers are prohibited from dictating to or in any man- 
ner interfering with an employee or laborer in his right to select his 
own physician, or from retaining or withholding any portion of wages 
due for paying a company doctor. 

[87] 



Company Guards. See Armed Guards. 

Company Housing. It is a not uncommon practice on the 
part of large industrial concerns, particularly those operating in 
isolated or undeveloped regions, to provide houses for their employees. 
Sometimes the employees are required to occupy such houses, some- 
times the matter is optional ; but in any case the rent is usually de- 
ducted from wages. Frequently these houses are better than those 
which the workers would provide, and the rent is often lower than 
that ordinarily commanded by houses of similar quality; but these 
advantages are not seldom offset by contractual ties of dependence 
on the worker's part. Company housing is as old as the industrial 
history of the United States. When industry passed from the 
home to the factory, company housing became necessary, since the 
colonial manufacturer was a pioneer who opened up new sites for 
factories at those points generally where water power was available, 
and was compelled to provide housing accommodations for the 
labor which he brought with him. Company housing (also known 
as "employers' housing") has been brought under public regulation 
in some states. (See Company Town; Truck System; Labor Camp; 
Strikebreaking.) 

Company Man. (i) A common designation among laborers 
for a foreman, superintendent, or other employer's representative. 
(2) An offensive term sometimes applied to a worker who is obviously 
or seemingly more concerned for his employer's interests than for 
those of his fellow-workers — even to the extent of being an employer's 
spy. In England the term "master's man," or, in the vernacular 
form, "guv'nor's man," carries the same connotation. 

Company Miners. In coal-mining these are employees who 
operate drilling and other mine machiner}^ remove obstructions, 
prospect for new "chambers," etc. They seldom "mine" any coal, 
and are paid a time rate which is a little less than that paid consid- 
eration MINERS. 

Company Store. In a company town, or in such compara- 
tively remote places as mining and lumber camps, it often happens 
that the only store in which workers may obtain food and other 
necessities is owned by the company or corporation employing the 
workers. "The existence of company stores is often an indication 
that the working people employed have made little progress from the 
condition of serfdom. They chiefly exist in sections where the 
laborers are ignorant and largely of foreign extraction, unacquainted 

[88] 



with American conditions and methods of labor organization. Plainly, 
if the employer runs his store to sell goods at cost plus the mere 
expense of handling, his store becomes a benefit to the employee; 
but this is seldom the case. The temptation is entirely too strong, 
especially in times of depression, to recoup losses in the productive 
branch of the business from profits on the goods sold or the tenements 
rented to employees. Company stores and tenements are objected 
to even where the prices are not excessive, on the ground that they 
limit the choice of the employee, and, more than anything else, that 
their existence contains the unwritten threat of discharge for the 
employee who fails to trade at the company store or occupy the 
company tenement. This implied threat is a powerful obstacle to 
the organization of labor and the inauguration of a strike." Several 
states have enacted laws directed against the company store. Where 
permitted at all, it is usually restrained from charging unreasonable 
prices, or charging higher prices to employees than to non-employees, 
or requiring employees to purchase their supplies from the company 
store. But for the reasons noted in the entry. Truck System, the 
regulative laws at least have had comparatively small effect in remedy- 
ing the evils against which they are directed. (See Pluck Me 
Stores.) 

Company Town. An industrial community in which an 
individual employer or employing corporation is the sole or main 
proprietor of land and improvements, including homes, stores, 
churches, public halls, etc. From a governmental point of view, 
company towns are "closed," being private property. Under the 
law of trespass the employer may eject anyone from the town, or 
refuse entry to anyone, without showing cause. Through his control 
of community streets, lights, public utilities, houses, recreation 
centres, and the industiy which supports the economic life of the 
community, the employer is able to exercise absolute authority. 
The rules which he promulgates are readily enforceable, backed as 
they are by the power to discharge any offender from employment. 
Company towns (often called "one-man towns") are rarely found 
within the limits of self-governing communities; they are generally 
either industrial satellites of larger cities or isolated centres in thinly 
settled regions. The investigations and hearings on this subject 
of the Federal Commission on Industrial Relations resulted 
in the following statement: "The conditions existing in typical 
industrial communities which are either wholly or in large part 
owned or controlled by a single corporation or individual employer, 

[89] 



present every aspect of a state of feudalism except the recognition 
of specific duties on the part of the employer. The employees in 
such communities are dependent on a single corporation, or employer, 
for their livelihood. Furthermore, the employer in many cases 
controls the social and political life of such communities, either by 
the complete absorption of local political powers or by domination 
of the local authorities. The fundamental rights of citizens in such 
comjmunities are, as a general rule, seriously abridged if not actually 
denied. Among the rights most seriously violated are the right of 
free speech and assemblage and the right of public highways." (See 
Company Housing ; Company Store ; Labor Camps ; Truck System.) 

Company Union or Inside Union. An organization of work- 
ers within a particular shop or establishment, and having no con- 
nection or association with what employers call an ''outside union" 
— that is to say, with any labor organization outside of the particular 
establishment concerned. Company unions are commonly initiated 
and fostered by employers, both for the sake of more harmonious 
relations in their dealings with the workers and for undermining 
the strength of those "outside" unions with which their workers 
would otherwise naturally affiliate. Thus the company union not 
only has no relation to the regular trade union movement, but is in 
direct opposition to it. Among trade unionists, any form of company 
union is commonly known as a "tame union," "household union," 
or "yellow union." Among employers, it is sometimes called a 
"peaceful union." (See Dependent Unionism; Shop Union; 
American Plan; Shop Committee; Open Shop; Nationalverband 
Deutscher Gewerkschaften; Yellow.) 

Compensation Laws. See Workmen's Compensation. 

Compensatory Time. An allowance of timiC off during regu- 
lar working hours, given to a worker as compensation or offset for 
time which he has worked on Sundays or holidays, or after regular 
working hours on other days. 

Competitive Bargaining. See Individual Bargaining. 

Competitive System. The modem economic and industrial 
organization of society, resulting from and consisting in "the strife 
of the individual or of a group of individuals to gain the utmost 
possible profit, rent, or wages in free rivalry with other individuals 
or groups of individuals." Under this system prices and wages are 
supposedly automatically regulated by the competition between 

[90] 



sellers for customers, and between buyers for goods or services. 
According to the old theorists, it is the struggle for existence in com- 
mercial and industrial life which results in the survival of the 
FITTEST, to the ultimate advantage of society as a whole. (See 
Profits System.) 

Composite Branches. In the British building trades, these 
are local unions made up of workers in various trades, organized in 
localities where there are no branches of the separate national 
unions. Such "composite branches" are affiliated directly with the 
National Federation of Building Trade Operatives. 

Compound Boycott. See Boycott. 

Compound Craft Union. This term is used by Professor 
Iloxie in designation of "a centralized, homogeneous organization 
of the workers in a number of related crafts." It does not include 
all the workers of a single industry, and it may include workers in 
several industries; therefore it is not an industrial union in the 
strict sense. In ordinary usage, however, such an organization 
is commonly classified as an industrial union. Nearly all "amalga- 
mated" labor bodies are of this "compound craft union" type, which 
may well be considered a transition stage between the "pure" craft 
type and the industrial type of organization. 

Compulsory Arbitration. In connection with labor affairs, 
the method of requiring by law that disputes between employer and 
employed, in the first or the last resort, be submitted to an " im.partial " 
public tribunal provided for that purpose. Under nearly all systems 
of compulsory arbitration, strikes and lockouts are either specifically 
or in effect prohibited; the aim is to substitute a judicial process of 
settlement for a trial of strength between the contending parties. 
A compulsory arbitration law may apply to disputes arising within 
any industry, or may be limited to disputes in industries "affected 
with a public interest" — such as public utilities, coal-mining, etc. 
As commonly understood, compulsory arbitration implies coercive 
action in regard not only to submission of the dispute but to en- 
forcement of the award or decision. If only the first step be coercive, 
leaving acceptance or non-acceptance of the award to voluntary 
action, the system is one of compulsory investigation merely. 
Up to the present time, compulsory arbitration has made the greatest 
progress in Australia, where it has been established mainly through 
the political pressure of organized labor — the majority party in 
Australian politics. In 1894 New Zealand passed a compulsory 

[91] 



arbitration act. The next state to adopt compulsory arbitration 
was New South Wales in 190 1. It was followed by Western Aus- 
tralia in 1902, b}' the Commonwealth itself in 1904, and by South 
Australia and Queensland in 191 2. Meanwhile Victoria and Tas- 
mania had adopted com.pulsory wages boards. In other countries 
compulsory arbitration has made comparatively slight headway. 
The Canadian Industrial Disputes Investigation Act, often 
cited as a compulsory arbitration meastire, in reality only provides 
for coercive action in connection with the investigation of disputes 
in certain industries " affected with a public interest." The same is 
true of the Colorado Industrial Commission Law, although this 
act applies to all industries within the state. The Kansas Indus- 
trial Court represents the only real experiment in compulsory 
arbitration 3^et attempted in the United States. Soviet Russia 
has at present a system which practically amounts to compulsory 
arbitration. While at first favored by organized labor, compulsory 
arbitration is now strongly opposed — in the United States at least — 
as nullifying the right to strike and creating "the possibility of a 
man being compelled to work for an employer or under conditions 
obnoxious to him, with the alternative of fine or imprisonment." 
Many employers oppose it also, as a public invasion upon what 
they consider private rights. (See Commonw^ealth Court of 
Conciliation and Arbitration; New^ Zealand Industrial Con- 
ciliation AND Arbitration Act; Industrial Arbitration in 
Russia; Victorian Wages Board System; Australian Arbitra- 
tion Courts.) 

Compulsory Award. See Award. 

Compulsory Compensation Acts. See Workmen's Com- 
pensation. 

Compulsory Conciliation. See Compulsory Investigation. 

Compulsory Investigation or Compulsory Conciliation. 

A plan of dealing with industrial disputes, perhaps best exemplified ■ 
in the Canadian Industrial Disputes Investigation Act. Under 
this plan, a governmental board or commission is set up, with powers 
to gather all relevant facts relating to specific disputes between 
employers and employees. No strike or lockout is permitted while 
such a dispute is under investigation; and witnesses may be sum- 
moned and compelled to testify under oath. When the investigation 
is completed, the board issues a public report of its findings; and 

[92] 



relies wholly upon the force of public opinion, thus enlightened, to 
determine a just settlement of the dispute. This plan should be 
carefully distinguished from any system of compulsory arbitra- 
tion — such, for example, as that represented by the Kansas Indus- 
trial Court. (See Colorado Industrial Commission Law.) 

Compulsory Labor in Russia. Since the present Russian 
State-community guarantees the means of livelihood to all its mem- 
bers, every able-bodied person is required to contribute his or her 
share toward the work which is necessary to provide the community 
with the means for the support of its members. The obligation to 
work for the community begins at the age of eighteen and terminates 
at the age of fifty. Old persons are supported by the community; 
likewise all persons who are permanently or temporarily incapaci- 
tated for work. This includes women for a period of eight weeks 
before and eight weeks after confinement. School children are re- 
quired to take manual training at school. As far as practicable, 
every worker must be assigned to work at his trade or profession, 
if he has any, and at his usual place of residence. If there is no 
opening in a person's chosen field of work, he may be assigned to 
and mxust accept another class of work. If, however, the work is 
of a lower grade, the worker is nevertheless entitled to the regular 
compensation which he would receive if employed at his own trade 
or profession. If no employment can be found for a worker within 
the district where he resides, he may be assigned to work in another 
district. (See Distribution of Labor in Russia; Revolutionary 
Labor Armies.) 

Compulsory Trade Unionism. This term arises out of the 
common trade union policy of seeking to bring all members of a 
particular trade or occupation into the union for that trade or occu- 
pation, with the correlated policy of seeking to prevent the employ- 
ment of non-unionists by refusing to work with them. In this 
sense, practically all collective bargaining tends inevitably in 
the direction of compulsory trade unionism. Obviously, according 
to George O'Brien's ''Labor Organization," "there is nothing to be 
gained by a section of the workmen in a particular trade making an 
advantageous bargain with their employers, if the latter are free to 
carry on their business by the aid of non-unionists who are not 
bound by the terms of the agreement. . . . There have been numerous 
disputes, often ending in prolonged and wasteful strikes, caused by 
the failure of employers to recognize the right of trade unionists to 
refuse to work with non-unionists, but at the present day the principle 

[93] 



of compulsory trade unionism has been generally recognized." 
(See Exclusion Policy of Trade Unionism.) 

Concentration of Capital Theory. As formulated by Karl 
Marx, this is the theory that with the development of capitalism 
there must be an inevitable tendency toward the concentration of 
industrial control in fewer and fewer hands, so that the middle 
CLASS must gradually diminish and at last disappear; leaving a small 
but immensely powerful capitalist class, or bourgeoisie, against 
which the proletariat will finally be pitted in a bitter conflict for 
supremacy. (See Scientific Socialism.) 

Conciliation. In an industrial sense, the settlement or at- 
tempt at settlement of an industrial dispute by mutual agreement 
between the two parties involved, without submitting the case to 
ARBITRATION. It may consist in direct negotiations between the 
two parties, without reference to any outside agency; or it may be 
the result of efforts on the part of an impartial intermediary, who acts 
as a go-between for the two disputants and endeavors to find some 
common ground upon which they may themselves reach an amicable 
settlement. If conciliation fails, arbitration is usually resorted to. 
The essential difference between these two processes may perhaps 
best be expressed by saying that in conciliation the disputants en- 
deavor to convince each other, with or without the help of a medi- 
ating agency ; in arbitration they endeavor to convince a third party. 
"If the word 'conciliation' is to be applied at all in regard to labor 
matters it would seem desirable to restrict it to the settlement of 
minor disputes as to the interpretation of the labor contract. Even 
here it may perhaps best be confined to those cases where the parties 
directly interested meet in a friendly manner to settle differences 
of this class. In Great Britain there are many trades in which 
organizations of employers and employees select joint committees 
to which any dispute of the members of the organization may be 
appealed. These committees are frequently called boards of con- 
ciliation. Of course in many and perhaps in most instances the 
action of these joint committees consists in influencing the parties 
to a dispute to come to an informal understanding, rather than in 
rendering authoritative decisions, and their action in this direction 
may be perhaps accurately described by the term 'conciliation.' 
State boards of arbitration use the word in a very similar sense. 
However, the common usage of employers and employees in this 
country gives to these joint trade boards the name of arbitration 
boards or arbitration committees. Doubtless 'mediation' is a word 

[94] 



more distinctively applicable than 'conciliation' to the intervention 
of State boards or other outside parties." (See Conciliation Divi- 
sion; United States Board of Mediation and Conciliation; 
President's Mediation Commission; Wage Boards; State In- 
dustrial Commission; French Conciliation and Arbitration 
Law; Swedish Industrial Conciliators; Conciliation Act.) 

Conciliation Act. A British Parliamentary enactment of 
1896, since revised and enlarged, setting up government machinery 
for the investigation and settlem_ent of industrial disputes. Under 
the Conciliation Act the usual fonn of arbitration tribunal was the 
** single arbitrator," an independent person appointed by the govern- 
ment and sitting as sole judge except in cases where the points in 
dispute necessitated the assistance of technical "assessors." Courts 
of arbitration (an employer's representative, a workmen's repre- 
sentative, and an impartial chairman) were established in 1908, 
but comparatively few cases have been refeiTed to this form of 
tribunal. The provisions of this Act are purely voluntary, and con- 
tain no element of compulsion. 

Conciliation Division. In the organic act of March 4, 1913, 
creating the United States Department of Labor, it is provided 
that "the Secretary of Labor shall have power to act as mediator 
and to appoint commissioners of conciliation in labor disputes 
whenever, in his judgment, the interest of industrial peace may 
require it to be done." No other provision having been made by 
Congress for organizing a bureau or statutory division for the purpose 
of administering the power thus created, it has been administered 
from the beginning by the Secretary of Labor under his own immedi- 
ate direction. At first, from total lack of appropriations for the 
purpose, the Secretary was obliged to draw such assistance as could 
be spared from bureaus organized for collateral purposes. Notwith- 
standing that handicap, however, and others of a kind that usually 
obstruct the development in practice of novel administrative func- 
tions, appreciable progress wsiV> made at once in conserving the in- 
terests of industrial peace. In the following years and supported 
by direct though altogether inadequate appropriations, the Division 
of Conciliation in the Office of the Secretary has been established. 
The Division is in charge of a Director of Conciliation, assisted by 
a corps of Commissioners of Conciliation. These latter act as indus- 
trial peacemakers, endeavoring to bring contending parties together 
and suggesting methods and alternatives for a peaceful solution of 
the particular matter in dispute. The Division has no power to 

[95] 



make decisions or awards in disputes submitted to it, its function 
being diplomatic rather than judicial. 

Conciliator. See Mediator. 

Conditional Members. See Members at Large. 

Conditions of Employment. See Working Conditions. 

Confederacao Geral do Trabalho (General Confederation of 
Labor). The principal labor organization of Portugal. It was 
established in September, 19 19, at a Congress representing 100,000 
workers. 

Confederacion General del Trabajo (General Confederation 
of Labor). This, the most powerful labor body in Spain and the 
national organ of the revolutionary syndicalist movement in that 
country, was formed in 1900 as a loose federation of existing revo- 
lutionary labor organizations. It is devoted to the extreme class 
STRUGGLE, with the GENERAL STRIKE as its favorite instrument. 
In order to create a more efficient fighting organization, it was 
decided at the Congress of 19 19 to abolish the national trade union 
federations which until then had been the chief affiliated bodies of 
the Confederation, and to substitute in each industrial region a 
Syndicato Unico (a regional One Big Union) which would include 
all the trades of that region. At the same Congress it was decided 
to join the third Internationale. The membership of the Con- 
federation in 1920 was 800,000. Violent struggles with employers 
and the government alike, approximating to a condition of civil 
war, have marked the history of the Spanish "C. G. T." (See Span- 
ish Labor Movement.) 

Confederacion Regional Obrera Mexicana (Mexican Re- 
gional Confederation of Labor). This, the leading national labor body 
of Mexico, is modelled after the American Federation of Labor. 
It is composed of 217 workers' associations, mainly craft unions, 
including thirty-five unions of agricultural laborers. The present 
membership is estimated at 500,000. In opposition to the Con- 
federation are a syndicalist and a communist organization, and a 
separate "Mexican Administration" of the Industrial Workers 
OF THE World. (See Partido Laborista Mexicano.) 

Confederation Generale des Syndicats Chretiens et Libres 
de Belgique (General Confederation of Christian and Free Trade 
Unions of Belgiimi). See Belgian Trade Unions. 

[96] 



Confederation Generale du Travail (General Confedera- 
tion of Labor). The chief national labor organization of France, 
formed in 1895 and now embracing nearly all the effective trade 
unionism of the country. For several years it was little more than a 
trade union congress with a standing committee; but its coalition 
with the Federation des Bourses du Travail in 1902 gave it an im- 
petus and power which have since steadily increased. In structural 
make-up, it has two distinct bases — the national Federations d'ln- 
dustrie and Syndic ats Nationals on the one side, and on the other 
a territorial grouping in the shape of Unions Departmentales. 
Each of these two sections forms an integral part of the Confederation; 
the two are of equal importance and authority. Each section keeps 
its separate existence and has its own central committee; at regular 
intervals these committees meet together as a Comite Confederal. 
This confederal committee elects the general secretary, and is the 
supreme executive body of the C. G. T. Nevertheless, it has no 
mandatory powers over the constituent units of the C. G. T., all of 
which retain almost complete autonomy. Each of these units, 
however large or small, has one and only one representative on the 
Comite Confederal, and but a single vote. Since 1906 only indus- 
trial labor organizations have been allowed to affiliate with the 
C. G. T. , although the craft organizations which already belonged were 
permitted to remain. In the matter of theories and policies, the 
C. G. T. has long been split into two rival camps. The minority or 
REFORMIST faction aims only at the direct improvement of labor 
conditions, and not at any catastrophic overthrow of the whole 
capitalistic regime by direct syndical action. It opposes the general 
STRIKE and SABOTAGE, aims at making its own terms with the em- 
ployers, and favors association with the socialists. The revolution- 
aries, on the other hand, who constitute by far the largest element 
within the organization, are against all compromise with either em- 
ployers or socialists. They believe that the workers, organized in 
INDUSTRIAL UNIONS, are sufficient to win economic emancipation 
by their own unaided efforts. They are both anti-militaristic and 
anti-patriotic. Their methods are those of direct action, including 
the strike in all its forms, sabotage, and the boycott. Occasionally, 
however, the two factions find a satisfactory common ground, and 
each has served to tone down the more extreme position of the 
other. The C. G. T. makes no money contributions to strikes, 
and confines itself to advice and propagandist activities, leaving to 
the local and national units in each industry the determination of all 
movements. It is supported by per capita dues paid monthly or 

[97] 



annually by its constituent units. The membership of the C. G. T. 
was put at 1,500,000 in 1920, as agains-c only abouc 500,000 in 1914. 
An annual labor Congress, at which each national and local unit, 
whatever its size, is represented by a single delegate possessing a 
single vote, is an important part of the C. G. T.'s activities. For 
its part in the revolutionary general strike of May, 1920, the French 
government instituted proceedings against the C. G. T., with the 
object of forcing a dissolution of the organization. A decree to this 
effect was finally issued in January, 192 1, and an expert was named 
to dispose of the Confederation's property. An appeal against this 
decision was lodged by the officers of the organization. (See French 
Labor Movement; Syndicalism; Ce-Ge-Te-ist; Conseil Ego- 
NOMiQUE DU Travail.) 

Confederation National du Travail (National Confederation 
of Labor). See French Labor Movement. 

Confederazione Generale del Lavoro (General Confedera- 
tion of Labor). The leading national labor organization of Italy, 
founded in 1906 and constituting the central coordinating agenc}?- 
of the national trade union federations (federazione dei mestiere), 
the local chambers of labor (camere del lavoro), and a consider- 
able number of individuals not belonging to any local union. With 
a membership of less than 250,000 in 19 18, the Confederation today 
embraces some two million workers. There are three important 
gaps in this imposing organization. It lacks the powerful Seaman's 
Union; a large percentage of the railway workers, sixty per cent or 
more, who are generally s^mdicalist ; and most of the government em- 
ployees, especially in the more skilled branches. It is, however, 
making headway among the last two classes. The Confederation 
is closely affiliated with the Italian Socialist Party — being, indeed, 
the latter's creation. While revolutionary in its ultimate aims, it 
seeks the redress of current grievances and the attainment of immedi- 
ate reforms through political action. The Confederation (popu- 
larly known as the "C. G. L.") is managed by an executive council 
of fifteen members elected by the national Congress, and a general 
council of delegates from the affiliated organizations. Since the war 
the C. G. L. has managed to secure the almost universal introduction 
of the eight-hour day. The main struggle has been to keep pace 
with the mounting cost of living, but a new factor has been intro- 
duced in the spontaneous demand of the rank and file for control 
of industry-, manifesting itself in the frequent seizures of factories, 
and the recent movement of the metal-workers which was accom- 

[98] 



panied by an epidemic of seizures and almost brought the country 
to the verge of revolution. (See Italian Labor Movement.) 

Confederazione Italiana dei Lavoratori (Italian Confedera- 
tion of Workers). A national federation of the Catholic unions 
{unioni Cattolicke) of Italy. Before the war the Catholic unions had 
a membership of only about 100,000. Their purpose is to defend 
the purely economic interests of their members, and they oppose 
and are opposed by the socialist and other revolutionary unions. 
At its Congress of November, 1920, the membership of the national 
organization was stated to be 1,182,491. The great majority of the 
members (about 950,000) are agricultural workers and mezzadri 
or share tenant farmers. (See Italian Labor Movement.) 

Confederazione Obrera Brasileano (Brazi ian Confederation 
of Labor). The leading national labor body of Brazil. Until recently 
the labor movement in this country was confined almost entirely to 
German and Italian workers in the so-called "immigrant colonies.'* 
No details of the extent and organization of trade unionism in Brazil 
are readily available. 

Conference Boards. In many trade agreements between 
national unions and employers' associations, it is provided that in 
case of a trade dispute an attempt at adjustment shall be made by 
a "conference board " composed of an equal nimiber of representatives 
from both sides. It is usually agreed that there shall be no cessation 
of work pending such attempt at settlement; but in case the confer- 
ence board fails in its attempt, either side may generally take such 
action as it sees fit. 

Conscientious Withdrawal of Efficiency. Some of the 
milder forms of sabotage — such as ca' canny, striking on the 
JOB, etc. — are now often collectively designated under this euphemism 
by members of the I. W. W. and other elements in the labor move- 
ment; the phrase being preferred on account of its implications of 
ethical motive and legal methods on the workers' part. 

ConseilEconomique du Travail (Economic Council of Labor). 
Because of the grave economic condition of France following the 
recent war, the Confederation Generale du Travail demanded 
that there be constituted a national economic council, representative 
of employers and workers, producers and consumers, for the purpose 
of formulating and putting into effect a general economic programme 
to meet the changed conditions. After much discussion, the gov- 

[99] 



eminent appointed a commission for this purpose; but as it proved 
unsatisfactory^ to the labor elements, the C. G. T. itself, in conjunc- 
tion with the national federations of state employees, cooperatives, 
and technical workers, set up a Conseil Economique du Travail 
early in 1920. Its purpose is to investigate social and industrial 
conditions, study proposed remedies, and advocate specific reforms; 
or, in the words of its originators, it is intended as "an instrument 
for investigation into, and preparation for, the part to be played 
by the workers in the community." The members of the Council 
are divided into nine sections, each composed of at least three dele- 
gates from each of the constituent organizations. Each section is 
charged with investigating and reporting upon a single phase of 
national industry. At the head of the Council is a managing com- 
mittee of twelve members — three each from the four constituent 
organizations. The general secretary of this committee is the gen- 
eral secretary of the C. G. T. The Council has worked out an elab- 
orate programme for the rettim to the community of the great 
industries or services (in the first place the railways, the mines, 
power-stations, etc., in fact the main sources of energy and the main 
means of transport) , and the independent working of these industries 
or services by bodies representing three parties in equal numbers 
— producers (manual and technical), consimiers and users, and the 
community. In connection with this scheme, the Council has 
recommended the setting up of a great national regulative body, a 
general directorate or bureau of national economy. (See Indus- 
trialized Nationalization.) 

Conseil Superieur du Travail (Superior Council of Labor). 
A national industrial council recently established in France, the 
constitution and duties of which were defined in a government 
decree of January 31, 192 1. The Council, which is composed of 
seventy-eight members and is presided over by the Minister of 
Labor, meets once a year for a period of fifteen days, although 
special meetings can be called by the Minister at any time. Thirty- 
two members are elected by employers in the principal industries, 
and thirty-two by members of employees' organizations in these 
same industries. In addition to the employer and labor members 
of the Council, three senators are elected by the Senate, five deputies 
by the Chamber of Deputies, and one member is appointed by the 
Paris Chamber of Commerce, two members by the Superior Council 
of Cooperation, and three members are chosen by the Minister of 
Labor from among the members of the Institute and the professors 

[100] 



of the law faculty of the University of Paris. The Council chooses 
two vice presidents from its members, and six secretaries are appointed 
from the Labor Department. The members from the Senate are 
elected following each senatorial election, the deputies hold office 
during the legislative session, and the other members for three years. 
A permanent commission, appointed from among the members, 
carries on studies in regard to general industrial conditions, the 
condition of the workers, and the relations between employers and 
employees. This commission presents its findings to the Council 
and advises as to needed reforms. Either a single report may be 
submitted or a majority and a minority report, and these reports 
form the subjects for the deliberations of the Council. 

Conseils de Prud'hommes (Councils of Experts). French and 
Belgian industrial courts, the function of which is to settle cases of 
dispute between individual employers and individual employees, 
arising out of the existing labor contract. Their purpose is to avoid 
the expense, formality, and antagonism incident to the settlement 
in ordinary law courts of minor disputes between employers and 
working people. The Belgian conseils de prud'hommes have some- 
what larger powers than those of France; but in neither country do 
their functions extend to the settlement of general labor disputes, 
strikes, or lockouts. The conseils, which date from 1806, are created 
for particular localities and for particular industries or groups of 
industries by governmental decree. They are composed of employ- 
ers' and workmen's representatives in equal number. Their decision 
has the force of a court order in most cases. (See Gewerbegerich- 
ten; Probi-Viri.) 

Conservative, Conservatism. From the Latin conservare — 
con meaning ** together" and servare meaning "to keep" — "to 
keep together." A conservative is one averse by temperament and 
training to change, one who wishes to preserve the existing order 
from fundamental innovations. To quote from Webb's "Industrial 
Democracy": "The abiding faith in the sanctity of vested interests; 
the strong presumption in favor of the status quo; the distrust of 
innovation; the liking for distinct social classes, marked off from each 
other by corporate privileges and peculiar traditions; the disgust 
at the modem spirit of self-seeking assertiveness ; and the deep- 
rooted conviction that the only stable organization of society is that 
based on each man being secured and contented in his inherited 
station of life — all these are characteristic of the genuine Conserva- 
tive, whether in the Trade Union or the State." Conservatism is the 
8 [loi] 



philosophy expressive of this attitude or belief. It represents the 
opposite extreme from the radical position, with the liberal 
occupying the ground between the two. (See Reactionary; Right.) 

Consideration Miners. In anthracite coal-mining these are 
regular contract miners w^ho, in consequence of obstructions (such 
as stone, slate, dirt, etc.) in their working chambers or rooms, or of 
bad working conditions, are unable to earn on a piece work basis 
an amount equal to or in excess of a certain specified rate per day. 
They are paid the specified rate, which is a little more than that of 
company miners, until they are able to earn more on a piece work 
basis. 

Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act. A British 
Parliamentary enactment of 1875, which largely determines the 
position of British trade unions in relation to the criminal law. Its 
main provision is that "no combination to do any act in furtherance 
of a trade dispute shall be indictable as a conspiracy unless such act, 
if committed by one person, would be punishable as a crime." (See 
Conspiracy Doctrine.) 

Conspiracy Doctrine. Since the beginnings of trade unionism, 
many of the legal attacks upon organized labor have been directly 
or indirectly based upon the common-law doctrine of conspiracy. 
This doctrine, according to Commons and Andrews, "makes illegal 
acts done collectively in pursuance of an agreement which are legal 
when done by one person. One m.anner of explaining this result is 
that when- men combine their motives become of im.portance. Their 
combination is legal when their motive is prim^arily to benefit them- 
selves, and illegal when they aim prim^arily at the injury of another. 
One person may sever all business relations with another, if not 
under contract to continue them, regardless of the motives which 
may lead him to take this step. But when workingmen combine to 
go on strike or to boycott an employer, the courts will inquire 
whether their primary motive is injury to the employer or benefit 
to themselves." This doctrine involves two important corollaries: 
(i) "Where the purpose of the combination is illegal every act done 
in pursuance thereof is rendered illegal, though the act may be 
innocent of itself"; and (2) "if an illegal plot has been formed, all 
of the conspirators are responsible for the acts of any of the conspir- 
ators done in pursuance of the common object." In connection with 
court interpretations of the conspiracy doctrine, "there are three 
theories which underlie most of the cases involving collective action 

[102] 



by labor. The most fundamental of these is the theory that when 
men combine the legality of their acts depends upon their motives. 
Another holds that intentional interference with the rights of others 
is wrongful, unless it results from the exercise of equal or superior 
rights. The third theory places emphasis upon the element of 
coercion and intimidation involved in the acts of combination. In 
their manner of statement these theories are wide apart; but their 
practical conclusions have been much the same. No matter which 
theory a court may entertain, there is great latitude in its applica- 
tion. Under each theory much depends upon whether the demands 
of the workingmen are justified or unjustified. Hence, the bias of 
the judge is likely to be determining." While the common-law 
doctrine of conspiracy "is very generally upheld and applied very 
broadly by the American courts, imless it has been modified by 
statute, there are some judges and legal writers who deny emphatic- 
ally the justice of the principle that acts which, if done by an in- 
dividual, would not be punishable become criminal when done by 
a combination, asserting that such a principle is contrary to the 
fundamental right of men to act in association, and of the inevitable 
trend of advancing civilization to render collective action more 
necessary. The highest English judicial authorities have in several 
cases declared that the intent of a combination to injure does not 
render civilly unlawful acts which would not be civilly unlawful if 
done by an individual ; and there seems little doubt that the tendency 
in Great Britain is to consider the element of combination with un- 
lawful intent less significant also as regards criminal law than was 
formerly the case. Court decisions do not always clearly point out 
the distinction between civil liability and criminal liability, or be- 
tween the elements contributing to each. It is stated by some authori- 
ties that malicious intent is not properly to be taken into account in 
determining whether an act creates a cause of action for civil dam- 
ages, though it may be properly considered in criminal law. This 
position, as just suggested, is now the ruling one in Great Britain. 
In the United States, on the other hand, the courts in many cases 
seem clearly to have held the opinion that the presence of malice 
makes an act civilly imlawful which would not otherwise be so. 
Some high American legal authorities, however, dissent directly 
from this position. A similar conflict of opinion exists as regards 
the effect of the presence of combination upon civil liability. Some 
authorities maintain that acts which would not give a cause of 
action if done by individuals give no cause of action if done by a 
combination, but the American courts in several important cases 

[103] 



have taken the opposite position." (See Conspiracy and Protec- 
tion OF Property Act.) 

Construction Camp. See Labor Camps. 

Consumers* Cooperation. That form of cooperation which 
consists essentially in "a union of many consumers for the purpose 
of securing in the purchase of commodities advantages impossible 
to be obtained by one, through an equitable division of the profits 
derived from their purchase." There are various plans of consumers' 
cooperation, differing considerably in detail; but the principal method 
adopted in the great system of cooperative retail and wholesale 
stores in Great Britain, as well as that mainly followed in other 
countries, is the Rochdale plan. Consumers' cooperation is some- 
times called "distributive cooperation"; and the associations are 
known as "distributive societies" or "store societies." (See Whole- 
sale Cooperative Societies; Discount Societies.) 

Consumers' Leagues. Organizations whose main object is 
to secure adequate investigation of the conditions under which 
manufactured goods, particularly articles of wearing apparel, are 
made and sold; to educate the consuming public to a recognition of 
its economic and social responsibilities and power, and so direct its 
force to ameliorating the conditions of industrial workers, particu- 
larly women and children; and to promote new laws or enforce old 
ones, in the interests of the working classes. The National Con- 
sumers' League, organized about twenty-five years ago, has done 
effective work in combating the sweating system by granting the 
use of its "Constimers' League Label" to manufacturers in certain 
fields who fulfill the League's requirements as to methods and con- 
ditions of employment, i.e., obedience to the factory laws, all goods 
made upon the premises, no overtime work, and no children 
under sixteen employed. It also successfully initiated a nation- 
wide movement for "early Christmas shopping" in the interests of 
retail clerks, and has been active in securing the Saturday half- 
hohday for salesgirls in New York and other large cities. 

Continental Union. See National or International 
Union; Trade Union. 

Contingent Benefits. See Strike Pay. 

Contingent Fund. See Strike Fund. 

Continuation Schools. As commonly understood, these are 
Special schools or classes in which children and other persons indus- 

[104] 



trially employed may carry on a "continuation" of such general 
education as they have had before entering industry. The instruc- 
tion is thus mainly or wholly of a non-vocational character. As thus 
defined, it will be seen that the continuation school is one particular 
form of the part-time school. Some writers, however, make no 
distinction in their use of the two terms; while others maintain a 
distinction based on the difference between day-time and evening 
instruction. Still others define the continuation school as one which 
** continues" the purely trade instruction of a person industrially 
employed, thus making it synonymous with what is commonly 
known as a ** trade extension school." While much confusion exists 
in the matter, the most generally accepted definition is that given 
at the beginning of this paragraph. (See Factory Schools; Works 
Schools.) 

Continuity of Employment. This phrase is used by Mr. 
and Mrs. Webb in designation of one of the seven classes of regu- 
lations which trade unionism seeks to enforce. This class has to do 
in general with all trade union methods and proposals intended to 
do away with, or to materially lessen, unemployment. 

Continuous Arbitration. The system of impartial ma- 
chinery for the arbitration of minor disputes arising under written 
trade agreements is of course more effective where the machinery 
is of permanent rather than temporary nature. It is therefore not 
uncommon, especially where the organizations of employers and 
employees are strong and where the agreement system has been 
highly developed, to find joint committees, chosen by the organiza- 
tions themselves in a more or less formal manner, which remain 
in office for the entire period of the agreement and have jurisdiction 
over all disputes. In some of these cases an impartial chairman 
is selected in advance for the entire period, while in other cases a 
"single arbitrator" is chosen to act only in particular disputes 
where the representatives of the organizations themselves fail to 
agree. The advantage of a permanent joint committee consists 
not merely in the fact that its members become more experienced; 
but especially in the fact that, since the machinery is always ready 
to hand, there is likely to be a stronger disposition to make use of 
it than where the parties must first select arbitrators to act regard- 
ing their particular dispute. This plan of permanent arbitration 
machinery is often known as "continuous arbitration." "It is a fre- 
quent provision of written agreements as to the conditions of labor 
that no specific clause of the agreement itself shall be subject to 

1 105] 



arbitration. In other words, the judicial act of interpreting the agree- 
ment shall not override the quasi-legislative act of establishing the 
conditions of labor by collective bargaining. . . Agreements fre- 
quently declare that, pending the arbitration of disputed matters, 
there shall be no cessation of employment, and that the decisions 
of arbitrators shall be binding upon both parties. It is very rare, 
however, to find any definite method of enforcing the decision in 
case the parties to a dispute refuse to abide by it. The rejection of 
the decision of arbitrators is indeed by no means uncommon. It 
occurs, however, less frequently than is sometimes supposed. Where 
the system of collective bargaining and arbitration has become 
established for a considerable length of time, both parties recognize 
what a disadvantage to themselves and to the trade generally would 
result from a complete break-up of the system because of refusal 
to carry out agreements or the decisions of arbitrators. It is where 
the system of collective bargaining itself is but little developed and 
works more or less intermittently that the decisions of arbitrators 
are apt to be violated." (See Hart, Schaffner & Marx Labor 
Agreement; Protocol.) 

Continuous Industry. One in which work is carried on 
night and day practically without interruption — either throughout 
the year or for several weeks or months at a stretch. Such public 
services as railroads, telegraph and telephone companies, electric 
lighting plants, etc., must necessarily operate on a continuous basis. 
An example of another sort is the steel industry, where economical 
operation is secured by keeping up continuously in all departments 
the great heat required for working the metal. Any unnecessary 
cooling, such as would result from shutting down for a few hours, 
is a loss of time and money. Given continuous operation in any 
industry, men are needed twenty-fotir hours a day. Not the same 
men, of course — but always, day and night, a full crew must be on 
hand. When one crew leaves the plant, another must step into its 
place. This arrangement requires a division of the day into fairly 
equal parts. It may be separated into two parts, with two crews of 
men working twelve hours each; or there may be three crews, each 
with an eight-hoiu* day. (See Shift System; Long Turn; One 
Day's Rest in Seven.) 

Contract at Will. In the labor sense, an agreement between 
one or more employers and one or more workers which is subject 
to termination at any time by either party to the agreement. Also 
called "indeterminate contract." (See Trade Agreement.) 

[io6] 



Contract, Freedom of. See Freedom of Contract. 

Contract Labor. Generally speaking, any form of labor the 
performance of which can be enforced at law. It differs from servile 
LABOR in that it is based upon a contract or agreement voluntarily 
entered into. In this sense, indentured service is the earliest 
historical form of contract labor. As now used, the term generally 
has specific reference to the system under which laborers are imported 
from a foreign country, under agreement to work for a particular 
employer. Although apparently based on freedom of contract, 
this system has in fact often resulted in compulsory service and 
peonage. The alien contract labor laws passed by Congress during 
the period 1885-19 17 were directed against this and other forms of 
INDUCED immigration; but they have had small effect in stopping 
the flow of unskilled laborers from abroad. Contract labor is also 
one of the principal forms of native labor in tropical or sub-tropical 
countries undergoing capitalist exploitation. (See Padrone System.) 

Contract Mining. With particular reference to coal-mining, 
where this system largely prevails, "contract mining" is only another 
name for the piece work system of wage payment. In bituminous 
mines the worker is generally paid according to the weight of the 
coal which he cuts out — at so much per ton; while in the anthracite 
mines he is, as a rule, paid according to measurement — at so much 
a cubic yard or so much a mine car. (See Checkweigher; Screen- 
ing System; Dockage System; Dead Work; Tonnage Men; 
Abnormal Place; Consideration Miners.) 

Contract Scab. See Union Scab. 

Contract Shop. As commonly used, this term denotes a 
shop or factory which accepts a clause in its trade agreement 
with one or more unions to the effect that none but union members 
in good standing shall be employed. (See Closed Shop.) 

Contract System. In connection with labor affairs, this 
term commonly denotes any arrangement by -which industrial 
operations are carried on under the direction and control of an 
intermediary between the entrepreneur and the workers, such 
intermediary receiving for the output or result a definite sum agreed 
upon in advance. In the simplest form of the contract system, the 
intermediary (called the contractor) agrees to find the necessary 
labor for a specified job, engages and pays the individual workers, 
and receives a liimp simi from the entrepreneur for the resultant 

[107] 



output. If materials are required, the entrepreneur supplies them. 
In other forms of the system, not only materials but working quar- 
ters and equ.ipm.ent are thus supplied, the work being carried on in 
the establishment of the entrepreneur. In such cases the laborers 
may be employed directly by the contractor, or they may be employed 
and paid by the owner of the industry, who charges their wages 
against the amotmt payable to the contractor. This latter plan 
takes away from the contractor the power to cut the workers' wages. 
The contractor in this case is simply a piece worker on a large scale, 
his profit from the contract depending wholly upon the speed at 
which he can induce those under him to turn out their work. In 
its most objectionable form, as found in the garment trades, the 
contract system is inevitably associated with the sw^eating system. 
In nearly all its fonns, it is actively opposed by organized labor. 
It is sometimes difficult in specific cases to distinguish the contract 
system from what is called sub-contracting, and indeed some writers 
make practically no distinction between the two. (See New Eng- 
land Contract Plan; Contract System in the Garment Trades; 
Butty System; Stevedore System; Piece Master or Jobber; 
Collective Piece Work; Job Work.) 

Contract System in the Garment Trades. In these trades 
it has long been customary to have the garments cut on the premises 
of the "manufacturer," but instead of being finished there they are 
farmed out to competing contractors, who either run small shops of 
their own or sub-contract the work out to persons who take it to 
their own homes. This system leads to various evils, of which 
sweating is the chief; but these evils have been at least mitigated 
by the increasing unionization of garment workers in our largest 
cities. According to Professor Commons, "the unlimited hours of 
work, often seven days in the week, is a feature of the contracting 
system. The contractor himself works unlimited hours. His shop 
is open most of the time. He deals with people who have no knowl- 
edge of regular hours. He keeps them in the dark with regard to 
the prevailing nimiber of hours that other people work. The con- 
tractor is an irresponsible go-between for the manufacturer, who is 
the original employer. He has no connection with the business inter- 
ests of the manufacturer nor is his interest that of his help. His 
sphere is merely that of a middleman; he is practically useless in a 
large factory. He holds his own mainly because of his ability to 
get cheap labor, and is in reality merely the agent of the manufac- 
turer for that purpose. In this he generally succeeds, because he 

[io8] 



lives among the poorest class of people, knows them personally, 
and knowing their circumstances can drive the hardest kind of a 
bargain. A very large number of the people who work in the sewing 
trade for contractors usually hope to become contractors themselves. 
When they succeed in this they reduce the prices, since the con- 
tractor when he first takes out work takes it for less money than 
other contractors." (See Inside Shop; Task System; Home Work; 
Outwork; Sub-Contracting; Sweat Shop; Sweater; Parasitic 
Industries.) 

Contract System of Convict Labor. Under this system 
contracts are made with persons, firms, or corporations in accordance 
with which convicts are employed in industrial work at certain agreed 
prices for their labor for fixed periods of time, the prisoners working 
under the immediate direction of the contractor or his agents, but 
remaining under the general supervision and control of the prison 
authorities. The contractors are frequently furnished with the power 
and even the machinery necessary for carrying on the work by the 
institutions in which the convicts are imprisoned. (See Convict 
Labor Systems; Prison Labor.) 

Contracting Out. This term refers to the practice of seeking 
relief from workmen's compensation and other labor laws by re- 
quiring or persuading an employee to sign a contract releasing the 
employer from liability under such laws. In England contracts 
made by employees releasing their employer from liability arising 
under these statutes are perfectly valid and enforceable. An em- 
ployee may therefore waive the benefit under these acts, and such 
waiver will be binding not only against himself but against his 
personal representatives as well. In the United States the courts 
are generally of a contrary opinion, and the rule of law that prevails 
here is that it is against public policy for an employee to contract 
in advance to release his employer from the liability created by 
these statutes. (See Wage Agreements in Germany; Elective 
Compensation Acts.) 

Contributory Negligence. See Employer's Liability. 

Control of Industry. See Workers' Control. 

Convener. In England, an official whose function it is to 
call together the shop stewards' committee in a particular works. 
Usually, but not invariably, he also acts as chairman of the committee. 

Convention. See National Convention. 

[109] 



Conventional Necessities. Those articles of food, dress, 
etc., or that style of living which, though non-essential to physical 
well-being, have become by custom "necessary" to persons in various 
walks or stations of life. (See Standard of Living ; Family Budget.) 

Conversion Training. That form of intensive industrial edu- 
cation which takes advantage of a worker's previously obtained 
skill in one trade or occupation and prepares him for an allied trade 
or occupation. Conversion training was practiced on a large scale 
during the recent war, particularly in the shipbuilding and munition 
industries. 

Convict Labor Systems. The various systems authorized by 
statutes in force in the United States for the employment of con- 
victs may be grouped under two generic classes, as follows: (i) 
System.s under which the product or profit of the convicts' labor is 
shared by the State with private individuals, firms, or corporations; 
(2) systems under which convicts are worked wholly for the benefit 
of the State, or its political subdivisions, or public institutions. 
Under the first class three distinct systems are authorized, known 
respectively as the contract system, the piece price system, and 
the lease system. Under the second class three systems also are 
authorized, commonly called the public account system, the state 
use system, and the public works and ways system. All but the 
two systems last named are vigorously opposed by organized labor, 
because of the demoralizing competition which they intrcduce 
with "free" workers. (See Prison Labor; Regie; Accord System.) 

Coolie Labor. The word "coolie" is commonly used in desig- 
nation of any native day-laborer in India, China, and the South 
Pacific Islands. In the United States "coolie labor" almost always 
denotes Chinese labor. Particularly in agriculture, but in various 
forms of manufacturing also, coolie labor is prevalent to a consid- 
erable degree on the Pacific Coast, where it is strongly opposed by 
white labor. The chief objection to the Chinese laborer is stated 
to be that he does not spend in this country what he earns, and there- 
fore does not contribute a normal measure of prosperity to trade 
and industry as a consumer. Another alleged objection is that he 
renders a supply of white labor more or less impossible in the same 
locality or industry, and hence displaces a class of labor whose stand- 
ard OF living is much higher than his own. Finally, he is said to 
shut out unskilled labor of all the white races from localities in which 
he constitutes the main element of supply. The various Chinese 

[no] 



EXCLUSION LAWS enacted by Congress have mitigated but by no 
means eliminated the problem of coolie labor. 

Cooperation. In a general sense, the theory that mutual 
AID and not competition is the fundamental law of life, that the 
individual best serves his own interests by serving the interests of 
others, with "each for all and all for each" as the guiding maxim of 
society. In the more common and specific sense, cooperation is the 
combination of persons into associations or societies for economic 
advantage "whether in the purchase and distribution of commodi- 
ties for consumption, or in the production of commodities, or in the 
borrowing and lending of capital among workmen." There are, then, 
three principal forms of cooperation: (i) That which is carried on 
by associations of persons who desire to benefit themselves as con- 
sumers by saving the merchant's profits, commonly called distri- 
butive or consumers' cooperation; (2) that which is carried on 
by associations of persons who desire to benefit themselves as pro- 
ducers by eliminating the employer's profits, commonly called pro- 
ductive or PRODUCERS* cooperation; and (3) that which is carried 
on by associations of persons who desire to benefit themselves by 
the use of their combined capital and their combined credit, commonly 
called credit cooperation. Each form of cooperation presents 
separate features, advantages, and problems, but the essence of 
the plan in each form is the elimination of the middleman. The 
cooperative movement, however, considers not only the purity of 
the goods bought but the conditions under which they were pro- 
duced, the wages paid workers in their production, and the hours 
worked; in short, it endeavors to raise the standards all along the 
line from production to consumption. The movement is of British 
origin, Robert Owen (17 71-18 58) being commonly regarded as its 
father. Its greatest original imxpetus, however, came with the estab- 
lishment in 1844 of the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers, 
composed of twenty-eight weavers of Rochdale, Lancashire, who 
sought to find relief from the poverty, unemployment, adulterated 
food, extortionate prices, and other evils from which they were 
suffering by getting together a little supply of joint capital and 
opening a small shop where provisions and other necessities were 
sold to their members. From this humble beginning has grown the 
great cooperative movement of today, which involves some fifty 
million persons throughout the world. According to Adams and 
Sumner, "cooperation differs from profit sharing primarily by 
reason of the fact that, in its industrial form, at least, its aim is to 

[ill] 



modify radically, and finally to utterly abolish, the wage system. 
Moreover, cooperation is essentially democratic, while profit sharing 
is essentially paternalistic. The latter is an effort on the part of 
the capitalist class to increase net profits by means of a bonus 
to labor more or less contingent upon increased industry and care, 
while the former is an effort on the part of the working class to abolish 
profits by distributing surplus funds among those whose labor or 
trade has created the surplus. Profit sharing aims to increase the 
total production of wealth, and cooperation aims to promote its 
more equitable distribution." While many cooperators are social- 
ists, cooperation differs fundamentally from socialism in that it 
neither demands nor implies any radical transformation in the pres- 
ent political State. "It begins within the framework of present 
industrial society, but proposes to transform it gradually and 
peacefully, though completely, by abolishing a distinct capitalist 
class of employers, the leading class at present in that society, com- 
prising those who are not inappropriately called captains op 
INDUSTRY. Cooperation does not desire fundamental change of 
law, for it hopes by means of voluntary associations to unite labor 
and capital in the same hands — the hands of the actual workers. 
Repudiating State help, it proudly adopts as its device, * self-help.*" 
Historically, cooperation has played an important part in many 
phases of the American labor movement, and of late trade unionism 
in this country has shown a decided tendency to experiment with 
cooperative enterprises, in both the consiuning and the producing 
fields. (See Consumers' Cooperation; Producers' Coopera- 
tion; Rochdale Plan; Wholesale Cooperative Societies; Trade 
Union Cooperation; Cooperative Employment; Credit Co- 
operation; Agricultural Cooperation; Cooperative Asso- 
ciations; Copartnership; International Cooperative Alliance; 
Cooperative League of America; Cooperative Union; Maisons 
DU Peuple ; together with the various cross references under these 
headings.) 

Cooperative Associations or Cooperative Societies. Unions 
of consumers or producers, organized under any plan or method of 
cooperation, are so called. Such associations, as well as their indi- 
vidual members, are often known as "cooperatives" — or, in short- 
ened form, "coops." 

Cooperative Commonwealth. The ideal of a State organized 
as a fraternal brotherhood, in which industry will be conducted 
through the cooperative efforts of all members of the State-com- 

[112] 



munity, is often thus designated. (See Mutualism; Socialist 
Commonwealth.) 

Cooperative Companionships. See Associations Ouvri- 
ERES DE Production; Cooperative Employment. 

Cooperative Crews. See Cooperative Employment. 

Cooperative Day -Labor System. See Cooperative Em- 
ployment. 

Cooperative Employment. There are two principal forms 
of the plan generally known by this name, according to Commons 
and Andrews's "Principles of Labor Legislation." One of these 
forms is the cooperative day-labor system, as applied in New 
Zealand and New South Wales. "This is a time or piece work 
system under which men out of employment arrange themselves 
in small groups, averaging about fourteen (the groups were at first, 
and occasionally still are, larger), select one or two 'headmen,' 
and enter into contracts with the government for sections of public 
work at 'schedule rates' based on the estimates of the government 
engineers in charge of the work." Under this plan the government 
actually directs the work. The second form is found principally 
in France and Italy, where workmen organize their own groups and, 
as such, contract for government work. The government officials 
are not in charge of the work, but turn it over to the groups of 
workmen, the plan being a modification of the competitive contract 
system rather than a form of direct employment. Cooperative 
employment is sometimes called "direct labor." The groups of 
workmen under such a plan are often known as "cooperative crews," 
or in France as "cooperative companionships." (See Associations 

OUVRIERES DE PRODUCTION; SOCIETA Dl LaVORO ; ArTEL.) 

Cooperative League of America. Although previously ex- 
istent as a federation of the principal cooperative societies of the 
United States, this organization was reconstituted as a permanent 
national body at the second National Cooperative Convention 
held in November, 1920. The objects of the League are "to promote 
the cause of cooperation; to develop mutual aid in place of antago- 
nism; to favor the spread of knowledge of cooperative methods; 
to unite all consumers of the United States for the above purposes 
and for the purpose of international federation ; and to encourage 
the acquirement of the agencies of production." The plan as adopted 
provides for state leagues with local autonomy, and for 4istrict 



federations within the state. The national organization of which 
the state leagues will be members will have no control over them 
except that the constituent societies must be acceptable to it. 

Cooperative Piece Work. The arrangement under which 
PIECE WORK wages are paid for the collective output of a group of 
workers, the amount paid being divided equally among all the 
members of the group. This is often called collective piece work; 
but strictly speaking it is merely one form of collective piece work. 
(See Fellowship Piece Work; Cooperative Employment; 
Station System.) 

Cooperative Railway Agreements. See Brotherhood Co- 
operations. 

Cooperative Union. A propagandist federation, organized 
in 1869, of all the chief cooperative societies in Great Britain, and 
some in Ireland. It looks after their legal and political interests, 
carries on educational work, organizes local conferences and exhibi- 
tions, and manages the great national Cooperative Congress held 
once a year. More than 1300 societies were affiliated with the 
Union in 1919. In nearly every European country the cooperative 
societies are similarly federated. 

Cooperatives. See Cooperative Associations. 

Coops. See Cooperative Associations. 

Copartnership. See Labor Copartnership. 

Copartnership Societies. See Producers' Cooperation. 

Copartnership Tenancy Societies. See Tenants' Copart- 
nership Societies. 

Corn Production Act. A British Parliamentary enactment 
of 19 1 7 which was intended, during the critical war period of food 
shortage, to encourage agricultural production. It established a 
system of joint boards in every county of the United Kingdom, 
empowered to fix a legal minimum wage, for a prescribed normal 
working day, for all agricultural laborers. 

Corporation. As the typical form of industrial organization 
in the United States, the corporation bears an important relation 
to the general labor problem. According to the staff report of the 
Federal Commission on Industrial Relations, "in transporta- 

[114] 



tion approximately loo per cent of the wage earners are employed 
by corporations; in mining 90 per cent; and in manufacturing 75 
per cent." The main outHnes of corporate organization are thus 
stated: *'The actual ownership of a corporation is vested in the 
stockholders and bondholders, whose only interest in the industry 
is represented by certificates upon the basis of which they expect 
the payment of interest or dividends at stated intervals. The 
control of the property, as far as operation is concerned, rests finally 
with the stockholders, or with some particular class of stockholders 
whose shares entitle them to vote. The stockholders, however, 
act through the Board of Directors, who are usually elected in such 
a way that they represent only the dominant interest. As far as 
the organization of the corporation is concerned, the principal 
function of the Board of Directors is to select the executive officials. 
These executive officials, either directly or indirectly, select the 
numerous superintendents, foremen and petty. bosses by whom the 
direct operation of the enterprise is managed and through whom all 
the workers are hired, discharged and disciplined. . , . Here, then, 
is the field of industrial relations : Masses of workers on the one side 
dealing in some manner with foremen and superintendents on the 
other, behind whom is an organization of executive officials, repre- 
senting in turn the Board of Directors, who are the chosen represent- 
atives of the stockholders. The crux of the whole question of 
industrial relations is: Shall the workers for the protection of their 
interests be organized and represented collectively by their chosen 
delegates, even as the stockholders are represented by their Direc- 
tors and by the various grades of executive officials and bosses?" 
(See Trust; Absentee Capitalism; Inter-Church Steel Re- 
port.) 

Corporation Schools. Those factory schools conducted 
by large industrial corporations in the United States, particularly 
the schools which aim at developing specialized leaders — superin- 
tendents, engineers, etc. — rather than the industrial rank and file, 
are commonly so called. Some writers use the term "corporation 
school" as an inclusive designation for all educational activities 
maintained by employers, whether in the nature of specific job 
instruction, training for trade mastery and craftsmanship, or 
general education which supplies the background missed because of 
inefficient or insufficient schooling. 

Corporatisme. Craft unionism, particularly that of the 
"business" type, is so called in France, where it is opposed by the 

[115] 



majority of trade unionists as making for "craft selfishness" and 
the creation of "a working-class aristocracy." 

Cost Budget. See Family Budget. 

Cost of Living. As commonly understood, the pecuniary 
cost of the commodities and services actually received by the mass 
of the people. In modem industrial society, the "cost of living" 
is intimately related to the whole subject of wages. If nominal 
wages are to be translated into real w^ages, it is necessary to know, 
not only the pecuniar}^ amount of the earnings, but also the quantity 
and quality of the commodities for which they can be exchanged. 
"In the usual sense of the term, 'cost of living' does not mean the 
cost of bare subsistence, whether of the commodities actually pur- 
chased by persons on the verge of star\^ation, or of the commodities 
which would just suffice to sustain life if purchasers were guided 
by dietetic considerations. It means the actual expenditure of each 
of the several grades of which the body of a nation is composed. 
Primarily, of course, it is 'the working classes' that have to be 
considered. . . . The first object of an inquiry into the cost of 
living is the ascertainment of the facts with regard to the expendi- 
ture of a particular individual or family, or of a typical individual 
or family of a particular grade or class, during the period (week, 
month, or year) chosen for the investigation. The figures, w^hen 
obtained, afford valuable information. They indicate, for instance, 
how the expenditure is distributed over the various kinds of wants 
— food, housing, fuel, etc. — and how much remains over for other 
purposes when necessary wants have been supplied. But having 
ascertained, in this way, some particular cost of li\"ing, we cannot 
but go on to compare it with other costs of Hving. We naturally 
desire to compare the total cost, or the manner in which it is divided, 
in the case of a particular class, with that of the same class at a dif- 
ferent time in the same country, or at the same time in a different 
country or in a different district, or of a different class in the same 
country. The subject, therefore, roughly divides itself into the 
primary investigation and the subsequent comparison." The primary 
investigation consists in the collection and analysis of statistical 
material in the form of family budgets, scales of retail prices, etc. 
The subsequent comparison is intended to show the distribution 
of expenditure in the several "classes" of society, the cost of living 
in different countries or in different parts of the same country at the 
same time, the cost of living in the same country at different times, 

[ii6] 



etc. (See Iron Law of Wages; Living Wage; Index Numbers; 
Standard of Living.) 

Cottage Industry. A term formerly in common use to de- 
note such industries or occupations as were carried on in the home, 
often by the womenfolk of men who tilled the fields or worked in 
shops. Cottage industry still plays a very important part in the life 
of Russia, many of the articles used by the peasants being made in 
this way. In 191 5 there were 15,000,000 peasants engaged in cottage 
industries, mostly farmers filling in their winter time. Many of them 
are associated with the Russian cooperative movement. (See 
Kustars.) 

Cotton Men. Members of the various unions of English 
cotton spinners, weavers, and cardroom operatives are so called. 
These unions, which are among the largest and wealthiest in Eng- 
land, are ultimately federated in the United Textile Factory Workers' 
Association, which focuses the opinion of all the British cotton 
operatives on fundamental issues of common concern and interest. 

Cotton Spinners' Parliament. A name given to the supreme 
governing body of the Amalgamated Association of Operative Cot- 
ton Spinners, an important British national union. It consists of 
representatives (not merely delegates), elected annually from the 
various provinces and districts included in the Association, and meet- 
ing quarterly with sovereign powers. It appoints its own Executive 
Council and officers, including the General Secretary himself, 
who are directly and continuously responsible to it instead of, as 
ordinarily in the trade union world, to the whole body of members 
of the society. Other large British textile unions are governed on 
much the same plan, though there are variations in detail. 

Council of Action. At a meeting of representatives of British 
labor early in August, 1920, when resumption of the war against 
Russia seemed imminent, the m.eeting warned the government 
that the whole industrial power of the organized workers would be 
used to stop war, and appointed a ''Council of Action" consisting 
of fifteen representative labor leaders with power to take all steps 
necessary to this end. At a later meeting the Council of Action was 
unanimously endorsed by the British Labor Party, which recom- 
mended the levy of a halfpenny upon every member of the Party 
to raise a fund for the requirements of the Council. 

Councils of Experts. See Conseils de Prud'hommes. 
9 [117] 



Councils of Exploitation. The factory councils or works 
COUNCILS of northern Italy are so called. Under this plan, the 
workers of each department of a factory or industry elect a represent- 
ative. The departments of the administrative and the technical 
personnel also separately elect their representatives. The repre- 
sentatives of these three groups elect an executive committee for the 
factory, and this committee is then charged with the duty of receiv- 
ing the complaints, requests, and suggestions of the departmental 
representatives, and of discussing them with the management. 

Councils of Labor and Industry. As found in some Euro- 
pean countries — e.g., France, Belgium, and Austria — these are 
bodies composed partly of representatives chosen in equal numbers 
on the nomination of labor organizations and of associations of capi- 
talists and manufacturers, and partly of experts appointed by the 
government. One of their principal functions is to aid the national 
legislature in framing and enacting labor laws, but they exercise 
a considerable measure of control over general industrial arrange- 
ments and relations as well. (See Belgian Industrial Councils.) 

Country Money. An allowance in addition to wages made to 
English workers in the building trades who are assigned to a job in 
the country. The payment of such an allowance is often stipulated 
in the working rules or by-laws of British trade unions. 

Country without Strikes. See New Zealand Labor Move- 
ment. 

County Average System. As practiced in certain English 
coal-mining districts, this is the method whereby a standard list of 
average piece work earnings for each class of mine workers is fixed 
by negotiation for the whole county, and the prices to be paid in par- 
ticular mines or in particular seams are fixed by local negotiation 
through a joint committee on the basis of the county average rate. 

Court of Industrial Relations. See Kansas Industrial 
Court. 

Cover -Up Men. See Under-Cover Men. 

Craft. As generally used in the labor movement, this term 
denotes a particular trade or specialized occupation of any sort; 
as distinguished from an industry, which may include several or many 
different trades or occupations. (See Craft Union.) 

Craft Autonomy. See Autonomy. 

[n8] 



Craft Committee. In some industrial establishments a shop 
COMMITTEE representative of all the workers engaged at a particular 
craft or occupation is so called. 

Craft Jurisdiction. See Jurisdiction. 

Craft Union. One of the two main structural types of trade 
union — the other being the industrial union. In its simplest and 
commonest form, the craft union is made up of workers engaged 
on a single industrial process, or on several processes so nearly 
akin that any worker can do any other's work. Such, for ex- 
ample, is a union of bricklayers, of blacksmiths, of plumbers, etc. 
A second form of craft union is that composed of workers engaged 
upon a larger group of kindred processes, still following the lines of 
the type of work done. Thus, all engineers might be organized in 
one union, all wood-workers in another, all leather-workers in 
another, and so forth. This form, variously known as * ' occupational 
union" and "kindred craft union," is often classified as a form of 
industrial unionism. It is, however, strictly craft unionism, because 
it follows the lines of common crafts or occupations rather than those 
of the actual structure of industry. As a rule, craft unions exist 
wholly or mainly in the case of occupations which do or did formerly 
demand a comparatively high degree of skill, rather than in those 
which require only unskilled or semi-skilled workers. Since the craft 
union often extends over a number of different industries, and in- 
cludes only one class of workers in each, it acts as an obstacle to the 
formation of industrial unions. For the same reason, it is not as 
amenable as an industrial union to ideas involving workers' con- 
trol of industry; and is, in general, a much less effective fighting 
body than the industrial union. "The separateness of crafts is being 
broken down by the improvement of machinery, and it is becoming 
more possible for the work of the skilled to be done by the semi- 
skilled. A strike of a single craft thus becomes less and less likely to 
succeed. The skilled are forced to stand together, and to make 
common cause with the unskilled. Craft unionism is out of date 
because the isolation of the craft is itself becoming a thing of the 
past. The small unions have to act together, and in order to do this 
at all, they must at least federate." The argument for craft organiza- 
tion, on the other hand, is based partly on the common interest of 
the workers at a given occupation. "A cooper is a cooper, whether 
the chief business of his employer is the making of beer or the pro- 
duction of barrels for sale. Whatever the nature of the establish- 
jnent he may chance to work in, he should, it is said, be governed 

[119] 



by the same trade rules, and should stand with his fellow-craftsmen 
in maintaining common rates of wages and conditions of labor. To 
undertake to unite in a single organization workmen of various 
degrees of skill, various rates of customary wages, and various degrees 
of economic power against their employers, must result, it is asserted, 
in divided councils and conflicting interests within the organization, 
and in consequent weakness." According to Mr. and Mrs. Webb: 
"The whole history of trade unionism confirms the inference that a 
trade union, formed as it is for the distinct purpose of obtaining 
concrete and definite material improvements in the conditions of 
its members' employment, can not, in its simplest form, safely extend 
beyond the area within which those identical improvements are 
shared by all its members — can not spread, that is to say, 
beyond the boundaries of a single occupation." Craft unionism 
tends, as a rule, toward conservatism and business unionism, and 
does not lend itself to the development of radical theories within the 
trade union movement. (See Compound Craft Union; Material 
Trade Union; Closed Union; Amalgamation; Old Unionism; 
Pure and Simple Unionism; Class Unionism; Union Scab.) 

Craft Unionism. The theory and practice of trade union 
organization on the basis of craft or occupational distinctions, rather 
than along the lines of the actual structure of industry. (See Craft 
Union; Business Unionism; Pure and Simple Unionism; Old 
Unionism; Corporatisme.) 

Credit Cooperation. That form of cooperation which is 
carried on by associations of persons who wish to benefit themselves 
by the use of their combined capital and their combined credit. 
The purpose is generally to supply loans for productive purposes 
to agricultural workers, town craftsmen, small traders, home seekers, 
etc. Credit cooperation has flourished chiefly in Germany and else- 
where on the continent, in the form of credit unions. In the United 
States, the building and loan associations constitute the main 
type of cooperative credit. 

Credit Unions. Local cooperative banking associations, formed 
to borrow money on the collective credit and responsibility of a 
group {e.g., a trade union, the employees of a single establishment, 
etc.), where individual credit would not be sufficient. The money 
thus borrowed is in turn loaned out to members of the association 
for various productive purposes. The two main types of credit 
imions in Europe, where this form of credit cooperation chiefly 

[ 120] 



flourishes, are the Raiffeisen Banks and the Schulze-Delitzsch 
Banks. 

Criminal Conspiracy. See Conspiracy Doctrine. 

Criminal Syndicalism Laws. During the period 191 7-1920, 
statutes defining and punishing ''criminal syndicalism" and sabo- 
tage were enacted by the Federal government and nearly one-half 
of the state governments in the United States, as well as by Alaska 
and Hawaii. There is a quite general similarity in the acts, syndi- 
calism being defined as a doctrine advocating the commission of 
acts of violence, terrorism, and crime to effect political and industrial 
changes; and sabotage as the doing of physical damage or injury to 
physical property for like purposes. Not only is assemblage for the 
teaching of the doctrine penalized, but the opening of halls and the 
permitting of assemb ages are likewise punishable in many of the 
laws. In New Mexico, employers hiring "anarchists" are guilty of 
a misdemeanor. Washington not only punishes sabotage, but also 
makes it a felony to interfere with or supplant the owner's manage- 
ment of his industry or to threaten such interference. (See Sabotage 
Law.) 

Crimping System. In present-day use, this term refers to 
a common method of recruiting seamen. For many years sailors 
have been, and still are, largely at the mercy of a professional "crimp " 
or "crimper" when seeking a berth on a ship. The "crimp" or 
"crimper" usually runs a sailors rooming and boarding house, 
and imdertakes to furnish shipmasters with crews. The crimping 
system is responsible for terrible abuses and inhtiman practices 
in securing crews. One of the draft conventions adopted at the second 
General Labor Conference of the League of Nations will, 
when converted into law, make the business of the "crimp" illegal, 
and will require each country to organize and maintain a system 
of public employment offices for seamen. 

Cropper or Share Cropper. An agricultural laborer who is 
paid not in money but in a share of the crop which he helps to pro- 
duce. The term is sometimes applied to a tenant farmer who pays 
the rent of his farm with a share of the crop produced, but the latter 
is more properly known as a "share tenant." (See Metayage.) 

Crumb Boss. See Flunkey. 

Cul-de-sac Occupations. See Blind Alley Occupations. 

[121] 



Cyclical Fluctuations. The fairly regular alternations be- 
tween periods of industrial prosperity and depression in the economic 
life of a country, or in specific trades and industries, over a consider- 
erable period of time. These cyclical fluctuations have an important 
bearing upon trade unionism. Whether considered in relation to 
national conditions as a whole or to conditions in a particular indus- 
try, the relative strength of trade unionism is generally highest 
during a period df industrial prosperity and lowest during a period 
of depression. The reasons for this are thus summarized by Dr. 
Weyforth: "In the first place, during a period of depression when 
there is much unemployment, it becomes difficult or impossible for 
many members to keep up their dues. Many lapses occur for this 
reason. Secondly, not only is it harder to hold old members, but it 
is more difficult to obtain new ones. When many people out of em- 
plo3rment are waiting to take the workman's place, he is less inclined 
to run the risk of losing his job by antagonizing his employer through 
trade-union activities than at times when jobs are plentiful. Finally, 
the union occupies a weaker strategical position in times of depression 
than in times of prosperity. When business is active, employers 
are, generally speaking, reaping their harvest. Hence an interruption 
to their business is extremely undesirable, and often they may prefer 
to yield to the demands of their workmen rather than imdergo the 
losses incident to a shut-down. Moreover, even in case the employer 
is inclined to fight, he will find it more difficult to recruit his force 
with competent non-union workmen because there is a smaller labor 
supply of the unemployed available than in times of depression. 
But in times of depression not only is the employer, because of the 
large supply of unemployed workmen, better able to make a fight 
against the union, but he is also less disinclined to do so, since with 
business running low, a strike of his men may provide a convenient 
excuse for shutting down his plant." (See Industrial Cycle; 
Seasonal Fluctuations; Labor Surplus.) 

Czecho -Slovak Labor Organizations. See Odborove Sdru- 
ZENi Ceskoslovenske ; Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund in der 
Tschechoslowakischen Republik. 



D 



Dago. A common American nickname for Italians, Spaniards, 
and Portuguese — especially of the common laboring class. The 
word is said to be an English and American sailors* corruption of 
* ' Diego ' ' — the Spanish equivalent for * ' James. ' ' (See Ginny ; Wop. ) 

Danbury Hatters Case. As the result of a boycott by the 
American Hatters' Union against a hat manufacturer of Danbury, 
Conn., in 1902, legal action was brought by the manufacturer against 
the members of the union. In 1908 the United States Supreme 
Court declared the boycott illegal, and authorized suit for damages 
under the Federal anti-trust laws. Judgment for $230,000 was 
obtained in 1909 against the individual members of the union; 
and six years later this judgment, with additional penalties and 
interest to date, was confirmed by the Supreme Court. A general 
assessment was levied on organized workers throughout the country 
to relieve the individuals affected by the decision. This case is one 
of the most famous in American labor history. 

Danish General Federation of Trade Unions. See De 
Samvirkende Fagforbund I Danmark. 

Darg. A Scottish term, meaning a day's work or a definite 
TASK. In some British coal-mining districts the * ' darg ' ' is the amount 
of daily maximimi output for an individual hewer — a limit which he 
is supposed not to exceed. Such limitation of output is, however, 
not countenanced by the leading miners' unions. 

Darwinian Theory. See Survival of the Fittest. 

Day Laborer. One who is engaged to work from day to day 
without any time contract of employment, express or implied, and 
who is subject to discharge without notice. Day labor, in this sense, 
is nearly always synonymous with common labor. 

Day Rooms. See Employment Bureaus. 

[ 123] 



Day Work, (i) Labor performed during the normal daylight 
period, as distinguished from night work. (2) That system of wage 
payment under which the worker receives a specified sum for a work- 
ing day consisting of a specified ntmiber of hours. The term "day 
work" is often used as a general synonym for time work. (See 
Day Laborer; Eight-Hour Day; Six-Hour Day; Normal Day; 
SixTEEN-HouR Law; Three Eights; Overtime.) 

De Leonites. See Workers' International Industrial 

Union. 

De -registration. See Commonwealth Court of Concili- 
ation AND Arbitration. 

De Samvirkende Fagforbund i Danmark. The general 
federation of Danish trade unions — the leading national labor organi- 
zation of Denmark. At the close of 1919 fifty-seven trade unions 
were affiliated with this central body, representing a constituent 
membership of about 278,000. The organization works in close 
cooperation with the Socialdemokratiske Forbund (Social Democratic 
Federation), which represents the political side of the moderate 
socialist-labor movement of Denmark. The more radical elements 
among the Danish workers are represented on the industrial side by 
the Association of Free Trade Unions, consisting of unions (mainly 
syndicalist in character) which have seceded from the conservative 
Federation. In addition to these two organizations, there are a 
few Christian unions and yellow unions in Denmark, but these 
are of minor importance. 

Dead Line. See Task System. 

Dead Work. In coal-mining, the underground worker is 
frequently required to set up timbers, remove falls, and handle 
impurities in the vein where he is working. The question of whether 
this "dead work," as it is called, should be paid for is a common 
source of contention in contract mining. 

Death Benefits. Payments made by trade unions, mutual 
AID societies, etc., to the widows or other dependents of deceased 
members, at the time of the latter's death. This is the commonest 
form of BENEFIT in American trade unions. Except in the case of 
those unions which, like the leading railway brotherhoods, con- 
duct a regular insurance business, the death benefit seldom exceeds 
an amount sufficient to provide for the extraordinary expenses in- 
volved in the death and burial of a member. Some gradation, accord- 

[124] 



ing to the length of membership in good standing, is often found. 
In addition to the ordinary form of death benefit, as described 
above, some trade unions pay a benefit upon the death of a member's 
wife, or (more rarely) upon the death of a dependent widowed 
mother of an unmarried member. Death benefits are sometimes 
called "funeral benefits," ** mortuary benefits," or (in England) 
*' burial money." (See Industrial Insurance.) 

Debs Case. In 1894, in connection with a railway strike 
originating in the Pullman Car Company works and thence spreading 
to nearly all the railway lines radiating from Chicago, a blanket 
INJUNCTION was issued by a Federal court enjoining the officers of 
the American Railway Union and **all other persons" from inter- 
fering with the transportation of the mails and with the flow of 
interstate commerce. For violation of this injunction, Eugene V. 
Debs, then president of the American Railway Union, was imprisoned 
for six months on a charge of contempt of court. The case is of con- 
siderable historical importance in American labor annals, as involving 
the first important use of the injunction as an anti-labor weapon. 

Decasualization. The organized effort, largely by means of 
national labor exchanges, to do away with the evils of casual 
LABOR by increasing the opportunities for steady and permanent 
employment. W. H. Beveridge, the standard authority on unemploy- 
ment problems, reached the conclusion that "the only way to prevent 
the creation of casuals is to eliminate the casual job, and the only 
way to eliminate the casual job is to unify four or five demands for 
casuals to work a day into a solid week's work for one man." He 
therefore proposed "that all the irregular men for each group or 
similar employers should be taken on from a common centre or 
exchange, and that this exchange should so far as possible concen- 
trate employment upon the smallest nimiber that will suffice for the 
work of the group as a whole." (See Liverpool Dock Scheme; 
London Dock Scheme.) 

Decentralization (Trade Union). See Centralization. 

Decentralization of Industry. The congestion of industrial 
enterprises in large cities, resulting from the tendency toward locali- 
zation OF INDUSTRY, has givcu rise to a counter-movement often 
known as decentralization of industry. This latter is the movement 
away from city centres out into the subtirbs or outside of the estab- 
lished city limits and into new towns or smaller cities immediately 
adjoining the larger centre. This is a conscious movement directed 

[l2Sl 



by advantages foreseen and calculated. As a result of it, towns and 
communities have been built up as single units or developments 
within a short space of time. The reasons for this movement of 
industry away from the city are a desire for more land as well as for 
cheap land, lower taxes, lower rentals, and avoidance of congestion; 
the desire to get more light and air and quieter surroundings, and 
to avoid the contagion of strikes due to workers living together 
under conditions of city life. Transportation is an element in the 
movement, and has greatly facilitated it. 

Defense Fund. See Strike Fund.' 

Defense Strike. See Lockout. 

Deferred Participation. As a method or form of profit 
SHARING, this may be described as the plan under which the indi- 
vidual worker's share in the profits of a concern is either deposited 
in an establishment fund for the general benefit of the whole body 
of employees, or credited directly to the individual participant but 
paid to him only when he has attained a specified age, has worked 
in the establishment for a certain number of years, or for some 
reason is in serious need of money. Provision is usually made for the 
payment of sums due employees to their heirs. In some cases of 
deferred participation the worker forfeits his right to pa3rment if he 
leaves the employ of the concern, though in many instances special 
provision is made for him to receive all sums due upon giving reason- 
able notice of withdrawal. 

Delegate Meeting. See British Trade Union Organiza- 
tion; Representative Meeting. 

Delegue de I'Atelier. See Shop Steward. 

Demarcation. In the British labor movement this term is 
generally synon3rmous with the American term jurisdiction as ap- 
plied to the conflicting claims of two or more trade unions to the 
exclusive handling of certain kinds of work, materials, tools, ma- 
chines, etc. The disputes arising in connection with si^ch claims are 
called "demarcation disputes." (See Overlap; Apportionment 
Lists.) 

Demarcation Disputes. See Jurisdiction; Demarcation; 
Overlap. 

Democratic Control. See Industrial Democracy. 

[126] 



Democratic Labor Union of the Philippines. See Philip- 
pines, Labor Organization in the. 

Demonstration Strike. One instituted for the purpose of 
manifesting the strength and soHdarity of the workers, and of thus 
impressing or intimidating employers or pubHc authorities. 

Department Councils. A general name for the subordinate 
delegate bodies representative of trade unions affiliated with each 
of the five Departments of the American Federation of Labor. 
Such councils are usually organized on a territorial basis — local, 
district, and state; but in the case of the Railroad Employees' 
Department the basis of organization is a single railroad system. 
Trade unions affiliated with a local departm.ent council are also 
required, as a rule, to affiliate with the regular city centrals in 
their respective localities. (See Building Trades Councils; Metal 
Trades Councils; Union Label Leagues; System Federations.) 

Department of Education of the Pennsylvania Federation 
of Labor. A scheme of working-class education adopted in 
1920 by the State Federation of Labor of Pennsylvania. By means 
of ''trade union colleges" in Philadelphia and Pittsburg, labor classes 
in half a dozen other cities, and circuit lecture courses in the remain- 
ing districts, trade unionists throughout the state are given the 
advantage of instruction in general cultural and economic subjects. 
The work is financed mainly by the local unions and city centrals. 

Department of Labor. See United States Department of 
Labor. 

Departments of the American Federation of Labor. The 
revised rules of the A. F. of L. relating to so-called "Departments," 
as adopted in 19 14, contain the following sections: "(i) For the 
greater development of the labor movement. Departments subordi- 
nate to the American Federation of Labor are to be estabHshed from 
time to time as in the judgment of the Federation, or of its Executive 
Council, may be deemed advisable. Each Department is to manage 
and finance its own affairs. (2) To be entitled to representation in 
any Department, organizations eligible to join it must first be and 
remain in affiliation to the Federation. (3) To be entitled to repre- 
sentation in local councils, or railway system federations of De- 
partments, local unions are required to be part of affiliated national 
or international unions affiliated to Departments or directly affiliated 
to the Federation. Said local unions shall first be and remain in 

[127] 



affiliation to central labor unions chartered by the Federation. (4) 
The fundamental laws and procedure of each Department are to 
conform to, and be administered in the same manner as, the laws 
and procedure governing the Federation. (5) Each Department to 
be considered the official method of the Federation for transacting 
the portion of its business indicated by the name of the Department, 
in consequence of which affiliated and eligible organizations should 
be part of their respective Departments and should comply with 
their actions and decisions, subject to appeal therefrom to the 
Executive Council and the conventions of the Federation." The 
Departments so far organized are five in ntmiber — the Building 
Trades Department, Metal Trades Department, Railway 
Employees' Department, Mining Department, and Union Label 
Trades Department. Each Department has its own officers and 
executive council, maintains its own national headquarters, and holds 
an annual or biennial convention. The officers submit quarterly 
reports to the Federation, and participate in regular meetings of 
the latter's Executive Council. (See Department Councils.) 

Dependent Unionism. A term sometimes used in designa- 
tion of a functional type of labor organization whose existence 
depends wholly or in large part on some force outside the particular 
organization. Certain label unions and practically all company 
UNIONS are of this type. 

Deputies. In the American labor movement (i) national 
trade union officials whose duties are described in the entry. Deputy 
System. Also (2) under certain trade agreements, particularly 
those in the garment industries, local trade union and em.ployers' 
officials who have direct charge of the execution of the provisions of 
the agreement in the interest of their respective principals. The 
deputies of each side in a particular factory are usually subject to 
the authority of an officer known as the chief deputy. (3) In the 
British coal-mining industry, company officials who occupy a posi- 
tion generally corresponding to that of a foreman in a factory. 

Deputy Clerks. See Protocol. 

Deputy System. Many of the larger American national or 
international unions maintain permanently, or employ from time to 
time as they are needed, special deputies who carry on the field work 
of the national organization, visiting the local branches from time 
to time and performing various specialized duties which would other- 
wise fall to the lot of the president and vice-presidents of the central 

[128] 



office. This is commonly known as the ''deputy system." (See 
Organizer; Strike Deputy; Special Defense Organizers; 
Financier; Label Agitator.) 

Despatching. See Routing. 

Detective Agencies. See Labor Detective Agencies. 

Detroit I. W. W. See Industrial Workers of the World; 
Workers' International Industrial Union. 

Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund in der Tschechoslowaki- 
schen Republik (Federation of Geiman Trade Unions in Czecho- 
slovakia). Organized in May, 1919, on an industrial basis. In the 
following March twenty-three unions, with a constituent member- 
ship of 352,000, were affiliated in the organization. At the first 
Congress, held at Teplitz in July, 1920, a membership of 360,000 was 
reported. Sixty per cent of the members are affiliated with the 
German Social Democratic Party of Czecho-Slovakia. 

Dictatorship of the Proletariat. In the Marxian sense, the 
temporary taking over of power by the proletariat majority after 
the fall of capitalism, and the conduct of governmental affairs by 
and in the interests of the working class. As a prominent tenet in 
the creed of scientific socialism, it means that during the transition 
period following their seizure of political and industrial power, the 
workers will exclude from any share in the government all non- 
producers, giving the vote only to those who perform useful social 
work. The right of free speech, assembly, and press of the bour- 
geoisie must also be suppressed, according to this doctrine, on the 
ground that otherwise they might promote counter-revolutionary 
movements. When the task of socializing industry is completed, it 
is argued, all able-bodied persons will be producers; thus there will 
be no fiuther need of the dictatorship, and the government will be 
conducted by the whole people. (See Bolshevism.) 

Differential Piece Rate System. A method of piece work 
wage payment devised by F. W. Taylor, the ''father" of scientific 
management. Under this system, the worker "is paid a low rate per 
piece for ordinary production and a considerably higher rate for 
production according to a standard, determined by careful time 
study, and made possible of attainment by systematic training 
of the workman and by such management of the plant as facilitates 
to the utmost the operations performed by the laborer." As a con- 
crete example, let us say 1:hat the standard TASK in the case of a 

[129] 



certain kind of work has been fixed at ten pieces per day. If the 
worker's output reaches or exceeds ten pieces he is paid at the rate, 
say, of fifty cents per piece, whereas if he turns out less than ten 
pieces he receives only thirty-five cents per piece. In either case 
the piece rate is definitely fixed — one rate for the standard task, 
another rate for an>1:hing less than the standard task. This plan 
is, in effect, a "scientific" extension of the bonus system. (See 
Task and Bonus System.) 

Dilutes, Dilutees. Unskilled or semi-skilled workers intro- 
duced among skilled workers, under the plan known as dilution 
OF LABOR, are sometimes called "dilutes," the skilled workers being 
known as "dilutees." 

Dilution of Labor. In an industrial sense, the introduction 
of less-skilled labor on work hitherto done by labor of a higher class. 
Such dilution usually takes the form, not so much of the direct sub- 
stitution of one worker for another on an identical operation, as of 
the introduction of simpler or more specialized machinery operated 
by a less-skilled type of workers. Or the process hitherto performed 
by one skilled worker may be split into a nimiber of easy operations 
capable of being performed by several unskilled workers. The en- 
trance of hundreds of thousands of women and green hands into 
industry during the recent war involved "dilution" on a vast scale, 
and made necessary the suspension or abrogation of all trade union 
customs and restrictions in this matter. (See Industrial Truce; 
Dilutes; Vestibule Schools; Substitution.) 

Dinner Money. In the working rules or by-la w^s of some 
British trade unions it is stipulated that the worker assigned to a 
distant job shall receive an extra allowance for his dinner in case he 
has received no notice of the assignment on the previous day. 

Direct Action. Among trade unionists, this term has long 
been S3mon}Tnous with what is commonly kno\^Ti as industrial 
action — that is to say, any aggressive mass effort on the part of 
organized labor directed toward a purely economic end; as for ex- 
ample, a strike or bo3Xott. In this sense, it has always denoted the 
opposite of POLITICAL ACTION or, as it is often called, indirect 
ACTION. While the favorite weapon of radical labor bodies every- 
where, its application differs widely in different countries. With 
the French syndicalists, direct action is "at once a great educative 
influence and the actual method of capitalist expropriation. It has 
therefore taken on an almost religious aspect, and has felt the need 

[ 130] 



of providing itself with a theology. The dogma of the general 
STRIKE is the formulation of the philosophy of direct action in a popu- 
^lar and compelling manner." During the past few years the term 
"direct action" has been more frequently applied to the attempt to 
secure, by organized labor action, political or other results outside 
the ordinary aims of trade unionism; such as the refusal of British 
seamen in 191 7-18 to carry labor delegates to the international 
Stockholm conference of socialists, or the strike proposed by the 
British Trades Union Congress in July, 19 19, to force a discon- 
tinuance of armed intervention in Russia. Still another use of the 
term is with reference to such a step on the part of a local trade 
union as the calling of an independent strike. 

Direct Labor. See Cooperative Employment. 

Dirty Mining. See Dockage System. 

Dirty Money. See Black Money. 

Disability Insurance. See Sickness Insurance. 

Disability or Disablement Benefits. Payments made by a 
trade union, mutual aid society, etc., or the State, to a member 
incapacitated for work by any bodily or mental disability. Such 
benefits commonly consist of weekly payments for a specified period. 
They include both sickness and accident benefits; but owing to the 
existence of workmen's compensation laws in nearly all large 
. countries, accident benefits are now of comparatively small impor- 
tance. A considerable number of trade unions pay a lump sum, 
equal to or larger than the death benefit, in the event of total and 
permanent disability. Under the British National Insurance 
Act, disablement benefits are paid to insured persons who are ren- 
dered incapable of work and have exhausted their twenty-six weeks' 
sickness benefits. (See Malingering.) 

Discharge Book System. As utiHzed by the Lake Carriers' 
Association, an organization of employing vessel-owners on the Great 
Lakes, this is a method of registration for employment purposes. 
Each sailor or seaman is given a "discharge book," in which are 
noted the vessels on which he has served, the capacity or rating in 
which he served, the dates of his emplo3niient and discharge, and a 
notation as to the character of his service m_ade by the officer under 
whom he served. In seeking a new position the holder must show 
this book; and if he is taken on, the book is held as long as he retains 
his position. It is a common complaint of the men that the '*dis- 

[131] 



charge book system" is often used to blacklist union sailors and 
others considered "undesirable" by the vessel-owners. 

Discharge of Wage Earners in Russia. Under the Soviet 
labor code, after a person has been appointed to a permanent position 
he may be discharged for unfitness only with the consent of his 
trade union. Both the employer and the employee may appeal 
the matter to the local and the district office of the People's Com- 
missariat OF Labor, respectively. The decision of the district 
office is final. In every case the worker is entitled to two weeks' 
notice of the proposed discharge. On the other hand, the worker is 
not at liberty to quit his job at pleasvire. He must tender his resig- 
nation, which must be passed upon by the works committee of 
his factory. If the works committee, after a hearing, declines to 
accept the resignation, the wage earner must remain at work, but he 
may appeal to his trade union, whose decision is final. A wage 
earner who disobeys these rules is barred from other employment 
for one week and forfeits his unemplo^inent benefit for that period. 
These rules do not apply, however, to personal service and to tem- 
porary employment, where the worker is at liberty to quit at pleasure. 
(See Probation System in Russian Industry.) 

Discipline. In the labor movement, this term refers to the 
mxaintenance of order and the observance of rules and regulations, 
as well as to the judging of offenses and the infliction of punishment 
— either on the part of an employer in relation to his employees, 
or on the part of a trade union in relation to its individual members 
or its subordinate units. Disciplinary action directed by a national 
union against a subordinate imion usually takes the form of a fine, 
suspension, or expulsion. In relation to individual imionists, such 
action is nearly always a prerogative of the local unions. In many of 
the national organizations, however, criminal codes have grown up, 
and in some of them the number of offenses specified is large. No 
offense appears oftener in these national codes than undermining 
brother members in prices or wages or conditions of work. Several 
unions forbid taking a job or offering to take it for less than it has 
paid before. Going to work where a strike is on is mentioned rather 
less often; possibly because it is so obvious and grievous an offense 
that specific mention seems even less necessary. Revealing the 
business or transactions of the imion to outsiders, and especially to 
employers, is often referred to. A few unions lay special penalties 
on revealing the name of a member who has opposed the admission 
of a candidate. Disturbing the meetings of the union by swearing, 

[132] 



by abusive language, by refusing to obey the president, or by appear- 
ing in a state of intoxication, is mentioned in perhaps a dozen codes. 
Neglect of duty by an officer or a member of a committee is often 
punishable by a fine, and in the case of an officer by forfeiture of his 
position. Absence of an officer from meetings and failure to have at 
a meeting books which are in his charge are often specially provided 
for. Misapplication of funds of the union, or any sort of fraud 
against the union or its members, is often mentioned. Penalties are 
often provided for advocating dissolution of a local union, or division 
of its funds, or separation of it from the national union. Slandering 
of members, creating dissension in the union, and working against 
its interest and harmony are other specifications. Unions which 
have labels sometimes mention the illegal supplying of them. Sev- 
eral unions provide certain penalties, often expulsion, for one who 
becomes an habitual drunkard. Finally, one finds such general 
phrases as *'the commission of any act which tends to bring the 
union into discredit." Many national organizations have elaborate 
rules for the bringing of charges and the conduct of trials. It is usually 
required, when definite rules are formulated, that charges be brought 
in writing, and that if the local union thinks them worthy of attention 
a copy of them be served upon the accused, or he be given due notice 
of them, together with a notice of the time and place of trial. The 
trial is in some unions before the local executive board, but usually 
before a special committee. The committee is selected in most cases 
directly by vote of the local. In practically all organizations the 
trial board or committee submits its findings to the local, with an 
abstract of the evidence; and guilt or innocence, as well as the penalty 
to be inflicted, are determined by vote of the local. Sometimes a 
two-thirds vote is necessary for the infliction of a penalty. The 
penalties customarily inflicted by labor organizations are reprimand, 
fine, suspension, and expulsion. Sometimes a distinction is drawn 
between private reprimand and public reprimand, and between 
indefinite suspension and suspension for a definite period. Far the 
commonest penalty is a fine; this has the obvious advantage of re- 
plenishing the funds of the union at the same time that it punishes 
the delinquent. In all national organizations an appeal lies from any 
penal judgment of a local to some higher authority representing the 
national union. This authority is, in general, either the president 
or the NATIONAL EXECUTIVE BOARD. Many organizations make 
special provision for charges against national officers. Sometimes 
such charges can be brought only by vote of a local union. The truth 
of them must in many organizations be sustained by affidavit. They 
10 [ 133 ] 



are usually tried before the general executive board, but sometimes 
before a special committee. (See Finances of Trade Unions; 
Brown System; Spontaneous Strike; Independent Strike.) 

Discipline by Record. See Brown System. 

Discipline Strike. See Spontaneous Strike, 

Discipline without Suspension. See Brown System. 

Discount Societies. As representative of a limited form of 
consumers' cooperation, these are associations of consumers which 
do not sell on their own account but obtain reductions in price from 
wholesalers and others in consideration of the joint and regular 
patronage of their members. This plan is often adopted by mutual 
aid societies and farmers' organizations in this country and abroad. 

Discrimination. In connection with the labor movement, 
this term is most commonly used in designation of the bias or unfav- 
orable distinction, on the part of an employer or organized group 
of employers, against a worker or an organized group of workers. 
According to the staff report of the Federal Commission on Indus- 
trial Relations, the most important device used by "hostile" 
employers' associations, in resisting union attempts to replace 
individual bargaining by collective bargaining, is discrimina- 
tion against members of the union. "Many of the associations have 
in their * declarations of principles ' the statement that no discrimina- 
tion will be made against any man because of his membership in any 
organization, but this rule is not enforced. Ordinarily members of 
the union are not discriminated against, but if the ntimber of union- 
ists increases in any shop until it becomes large, the employer is 
advised or decides on his own volition to hire no more members of 
the union. Moreover, any workman who is prominent in urging the 
others to form a union is likely to be dismissed. The aim of the 
association is to prevent in ordinary times such an increase in the 
number of unionists as will lead to a collective demand. The proposi- 
tion is effective against collective action, as membership of an in- 
dividual workman in a union constitutes no menace to the employer's 
power to control his business unless the individual can persuade 
others to act with him." 

Dismissal Wage. In view of the economic distress often 
caused to the workman and his family when he is suddenly thrown 
out of a job, it has been proposed that the employer should be re- 
quired to continue the payment of wages for a certain period (usually 

[134] 



two weeks) after an employee is discharged, such payment being 
known as a "dismissal wage." This plan would give the worker 
his customary earnings while he was seeking a new job, and would 
reduce the temptation on the employer's part to discharge workers 
for trivial or unsound reasons. 

Dispute. See Strike. 

Dispute Benefits. See Strike Pay. 

Dispute Pay. See Strike Pay. 

Distribution of Labor in Russia. Under the Soviet labor 
code, the enforcement of the right to work, on the one hand, and 
the compulsory assignment of wage-earners to work, on the other, 
are secured through the Labor Distribution Department of the 
People's Commissariat of Labor. Through its local and district 
sections the Department keeps a register of all unemployed workers, 
and these latter are assigned according to the needs of particular 
establishments and individuals. An unemployed worker has no 
right to refuse an offer to work at his vocation, provided the working 
conditions conform with the standards fixed by the government and 
the trade unions. 

Distributive Cooperation. See Consumers' Cooperation. 

Distributive Societies. See Consumers' Cooperation. 

District By-Laws. See By-Laws. 

District Committee. See District Council. 

District Council, (i) In the United States, when several 
locals belonging to the same national union exist in a place, they 
are often united in a district council. The Brotherhood of Carpenters 
and the Painters require a district council to be established wherever 
there are two local unions. The powers of the district councils 
vary greatly in the different organizations. In the Brotherhood of 
Carpenters their powers are considerable; they not only frame and 
enforce working rules for their districts, but they adopt by-laws 
and rules covering strike pay and other benefits to be paid by the 
locals under their jurisdiction. District councils are always com- 
posed of delegates from local unions. In some organizations their 
more important decisions are submitted to the locals for confirma- 
tion. (2) In certain British national unions, particularly the large 
federated or amalgamated organizations, the district council (or, as 

[135] 



it is called in some unions, the district committee) is a delegate body 
representative of all the branches of the national society in a 
single large industrial centre or locality. As in the case of their 
American counterparts, the powers of the British district councils 
vary greatly in different unions. In the Amalgamated Society of 
Engineers the district committee enjoys almost complete autonomy 
in the formation of local industrial policy, subject to two conditions : 
(i) That any action which involves expenditure from the central 
fund must receive the sanction of the central executive, and (2) 
that the organization of friendly benefits is a matter entrusted 
exclusively to the individual branches. In the National Union of 
Railwaymen, on the other hand, the district councils have no execu- 
tive powers, and exist merely for propagandist and consultative 
purposes. (See District Union; Joint Council; British Trade 
Union Organization; Multiple-Branch Union.) 

District Delegates. In the British trade union movement, 
these are agents of the national unions, elected for every important 
district, who devote themselves to organizing work, collective 
bargaining, etc. In some of the larger unions, the district delegates 
form a virtual cabinet to the general secretary, "alternately 
serving as councillors on high issues of policy and as ministers carry- 
ing out in their own spheres that which they have in council decided." 
(See British Trade Union Organization.) 

District Industrial Councils. As formulated in the Whitley 
PLAN, a district industrial council is a voluntary body representative 
of trade unions and employers' associations in a particular industry 
for a particular district or area. It is closely correlated with the 
various WORKS committees in the same industry and area, on the 
one hand, and with the national industrial council for the same 
industry, on the other. Where a national council for an industry 
has not been formed, the district councils perform the functions of 
the national council. They deal with matters of general significance 
to the industry and district, particularly rates of wages and hours of 
work. 

District Union. In some American national or international 
unions, this is .a form of organization which usually occupies an 
intermediate position between the local and the central national 
body. The district covered is often an area within which productive 
or competitive conditions are essentially similar. Often it is roughly 
coterminous with the boundaries of a state. In a number of unions 

[136] 



the New England states constitute a single district. The Interna- 
tional Seamen's Union follows the coast lines and inland waters in 
marking off its districts. The district unions of coal miners embrace 
all miners in the same coal field or in a group of coal fields having com-' 
mon shipping points. Sometimes they are further subdivided into dis- ' 
tricts which embrace the miners working in one section of a large' 
coal field or in a group of mines under the same management. Among 
railway workers the district union (or division, as it is called) is 
generally coterminous with a single railway system. In most unions 
the primary purpose of the district organization is to render conditions 
of employment uniform throughout the area over which the district 
union has jurisdiction. Another purpose is to unite all those local 
unions of a single craft or industry which will be affected by a strike 
occurring in any part of the district. In some cases the district 
union negotiates a uniform wage scale for the district as a whole, 
carries on collective bargaining in regard to hours and working 
conditions, and exercises all control of strikes within the district. 
Most district unions are governed by a delegate body known as the 
DISTRICT council, made up of representatives from the various locals 
within the district, and by permanent officers chosen by that body 
— including sometimes a business agent. Frequently, also, there 
is an executive board, which transacts emergency business between 
the meetings of the district council. The relative power and authority 
of the district union vary widely in different national organizations. 
Sometimes it is the most important unit of the entire organization 
— as with the coal miners, whose district unions preceded the national 
union; or with the machine textile workers, who have no locals; 
or with the seamen, whose locals are little more than convenient 
** ports of call " for visiting members. Sometimes it is merely a useful 
agent for the transaction of routine administrative duties. (See 
Joint Council.) 

Divided Foremanship. See Functional Foremanship. 

Division, (i) In some of the American railway brother- 
hoods, the central national body is called the "grand division" 
or "grand international division," while the minor bodies or units 
are known as "divisions," "sub-divisions," or "subordinate divi- 
sions." These latter commonly differ from the locals in other na- 
tional imions in that they are organized not on the basis of locality 
but according to units of individual railway systems. (2) The five 
jiurisdictional units of the Railway Employees' Department of the 

[137] 



American Federation of Labor are called "divisions." (See Dis- 
trict Union.) 

Division of Labor. This term is commonly used in tvv^o 
different senses, as follows: (i) With reference to industry as a whole, 
it denotes the separation of occupations, each worker specializing 
in a particular trade or craft instead of following several in combina- 
tion. Division of labor in this sense was the main characteristic of 
the handicraft system, as distinguished from the household 
SYSTEM, in industrial evolution. (2) With reference to a single 
craft or industrial process, it denotes the separation of such craft 
or process into a ntmiber of component operations, each worker 
being confined wholly or mainly to a single operation. The division 
of labor, in either of the above senses, is often referred to as ** sub- 
division of labor." (See Specialization; Territorial Division of 
Labor.) 

Dock Wollopers. Casual workers among the longshoremen 
are thus nicknamed. 

Dockage or Docking System. In connection with contract 
MINING, particularly in the anthracite region, it is customary for a 
company official knowTi as a "docking boss" to inspect the cars of 
coal brought out of the mines and make deductions from the miner's 
pay for slate and other impurities found in the coal or for cars not 
fully loaded. These deductions or "docks" are partly in the nature 
of fines, intended to discoiuage what is called " dirty mining " and the 
imderloading of mine cars. Owing to the alleged abuses suffered by 
the miners under this system, there is now in most anthracite col- 
lieries a miners' representative, called the "check-docking boss," 
whose function it is to see that the miners are not unjustly docked. 

Dockers. Unskilled workers employed in the loading and 
unloading of vessels are usually so called in England. (See Liver- 
pool Dock Scheme; London Dock Scheme; Strappers; Dockers* 
Tanner.) 

Dockers' Tanner. A phrase that came into popular use diuring 
the great London dock strike of 1889, when ten thousand casual 
dock laborers struck for wages of sixpence (commonly nicknamed 
a "tanner" in England) an hour, held up the Port of London for 
ten weeks, and finally won their claim. 

Docking. The practice of making deductions from a worker*s 
pay, because of faulty output or for various other reasons. The 

[138] 



word derives from the old English docken or dokken, meaning to 
curtail or cut short. (See Dockage System; Wage Deductions.) 

Docking Boss. See Dockage System. 

Doctrinaire. One who holds an abstract theory or belief, 
and insists on its applicability under all conditions, without 
regard to facts or circumstances. The term is often applied, in a 
loose way, to socialists and others who hold views that are still for 
the most part untested by practice. 

Document. During a widespread British labor dispute in 
1833, the employers of Liverpool and Manchester publicly announced 
that henceforth no man need apply for work unless he was prepared 
to sign a formal renunciation of trade union allegiance. This was 
known as "the presentation of the document," or more briefly 
"the document," and it became a favorite weapon of employers in 
fighting the unions. It was revived in 19 13 in the Irish transport 
industry, and a few months thereafter in the British building trades. 
(See Ironclad Agreement.) 

Domestic Service. A general designation for those forms of 
labor that are performed by paid employees (usually women) in the 
home. Originally domestic service was synonymous with so-called 
"menial labor" — the word "menial" being derived from an old 
root signifying "household" or "pertaining to a household"; but 
in common usage today "menial" carries a suggestion of extreme 
social inferiority which does not necessarily attach to "domestic 
service." The organization of domestic servants in trade unions 
has as yet made only very slight progress in any country. In at 
least one country (Germany) they have until lately been legally 
prevented from organizing. Various efforts have, however, been 
made to raise the status and conditions of domestic service to some- 
thing like the average level in other forms of industry; and in Eng- 
land particularly these efforts have of late been not wholly unsuc- 
cessful. The staff report of the Federal Commission on Industrial 
Relations contains the following statement on this general subject : 
"We find that practically nothing has been done toward the very 
necessary development of organizations of women engaged in domes- 
tic service, and that no standards governing the toil of the thousands 
thus engaged have been established. As a necessary step in this 
direction, we recommend that the hours of such workers should be 
limited to eight per day; and that no such persons be permitted to 
work over six days in each week; that a minimum wage be fixed 

[139] 



for this class of employees which will insure them a comfortable 
life without being required to live in the homes of persons employing 
them, where they m.ay be subjected to objectionable or uncomfort- 
able living conditions. That all of the improvements and safeguards 
recommended for adoption in this report, as applying to women in 
other lines of industry, shall apply with equal force and effect to 
women engaged in domestic service." (See Household Assistant 
System; Living-In System.) 

Domestic System. The third stage in modem industrial 
EVOLUTION, following the handicraft system and preceding the 
FACTORY system, is commonly so called. This stage, according to 
W. J. Ashley, "is marked by the advent of various kinds of commercial 
middlemen, who act as intermediaries between the actual makers in 
their small domestic workshops and the final purchasers, the widen- 
ing of the market being both the cause and the result of their appear- 
ance." The present-day counterpart of the domestic system is to 
be found in certain forms of the sweating system. (See Town 
Economy.) 

Dominican Federation of Labor. The leading labor organi- 
zation of Santo Domingo. It was formed in 191 5, and consists of 
directly affiliated local craft unions and central bodies, with a 
constituent membership early in 1920 of about 2700 workers. 

Dominion Trades and Labor Congress. See Canadian 
Labor Organizations. 

Donation. See Benefits; Out-of-Work Benefits. 

Double Rate. See Time and a Half. 

Double -Standard Basis. See Screening System. 

Double Time. See Time and a Half. 

Double Turn. See Shift System. 

Dovetailing of Seasonal Trades. As a remedy for unem- 
ployment, this is the method of so regulating conditions in seasonal 
occupations that workers may pass from one to another of such 
occupations without any intervening period of idleness. (See Labor 
Outings.) 

Down -and -Outs. See Unemployables. 

Down Tools. In the British labor world, to "down tools" 
is to institute a strike. (See Turnout.) 

[140] 



Driving. See Speeding Up. 

Dual State. The form of governmental organization proposed 
by advocates of guild socialism is often so called. According 
to their theory, as stated by Bertrand Russell, ** there should be 
two co-equal instruments of government in a community, the one 
geographical, representing the consumers, and essentially the con- 
tinuation of the democratic State; the other representing the pro- 
ducers, organized, not geographically, but in guilds, after the manner 
of INDUSTRIAL UNIONISM. Thesc two authorities will deal with 
different classes of questions. Guild socialists do not regard the 
industrial authority as forming part of the State, for they contend 
that it is the essence of the State to be geographical ; but the indus- 
trial authority will resemble the present State in the fact that it 
will have coercive powers, and that its decrees will be enforced, 
when necessary. ' ' This plan of two co-equal centres of authority, one 
representative of geographical and the other of industrial interests, 
results in what is called the ''dual State." 

Dual Union. A labor organization which openly and actively 
competes with another for jurisdiction over the workers of a par- 
ticular craft, trade, or industry — local, district, or national. Usually 
the term is applied only to a union formed as the result of a seces- 
sion movement from an older organization — generally on the work- 
ers' own initiative, but sometimes by the inspiration and encourage- 
ment of employers; the "dual union" being considered an unauthor- 
ized rival to the ** regular" union in the same field. 

Dual Unionism or Dual Organization. As most commonly 
used, these terms refer to the method or tactics of furthering revo- 
lutionary working-class aims by separately organizing the more 
radical workers, in direct competition with the conservative trade 
unions, and endeavoring to influence the policy of the latter from the 
outside, by force of organized rivalry. This method is known in 
France as la pression exterieure, and in the I. W. W. as "hammering 
from without." The opposite method or policy is known in France 
as la penetration, and in this country as boring from within. 

Due Card or Due Book. In most trade unions each member 
is provided with a card or book containing written entry or stamps 
in record of all dues and assessments paid by the member to his local 
union. This card or book is his evidence of union membership "in 
good standing." In some unions the due card or due book serves as 
a working card ; other unions issue separate due cards and working 
cards. (See Combination Card.) 

[ 141 ] 



Duplex Printing Press Case. Because of its failure to recog- 
nize the union and to observe union conditions, a strike was declared 
against the Duplex Printing Press Company of Battle Creek, Mich., 
by the International Association of Machinists. In aid of that strike 
the Association instructed its members not to work on the installa- 
tion of presses which the Duplex Company had delivered to printing 
concerns in New York City. This was termed by the Association a 
SYMPATHETIC STRIKE ; but it was construcd by the courts as a second- 
ary BOYCOTT, being directed against the purchasers of the presses 
rather than the manufacturers, and an injunction was granted 
restraining the officials of the machinists' union in New York from 
inducing their members not to work for the company or for its cus- 
tomers in connection with the installation of its presses. The case 
was carried to the United States Supreme Court, which handed down 
a decision early in January, 192 1, upholding the injunction and 
declaring the '* secondary boycott" illegal. In practical effect, this 
decision largely nullifies what was considered by organized labor as 
one of the main effects and piurposes of the labor clauses of the 
Clayton Act. 

Dutch Labor Organizations. The wage-earners of Holland 
are at present organized in five national federations, as follows: (i) 
The Nederlandsch Verbond van Vakvereenigingen (Dutch Federa- 
tion of Trade Unions), representing the conservative (Social Demo- 
cratic) elements, with a membership of 247,870 in January, 1920; 
(2) the Christelyk National Vakverbond (Christian National Fed- 
eration), organized under the guidance of the Protestant Churches, 
with 70,000 members; (3) the Bureau voor de Roomscke Katholicke 
Wakorgenisatie (Bureau of the Roman Catholic Organizations), 
founded under the auspices of the Catholic Church to combat socialist 
doctrines, with 150,000 members; (4) the Nederlandsch Verbond 
WOT Neutrale Vakvereenigingen (Dutch Federation of Neutral 
Trade Unions), founded in 191 9 as a non-political means of harmo- 
nizing industrial relations, with 50,000 members; and (5) the Neder- 
landsch Arbeids Secretariat (Dutch Labor Secretariat), representing 
the syndicalist elements, with 45,000 members in 19 19. Probably 
in no other country is the labor movement so weakened by political 
and religious differences. (See Kamers van Arbeid.) 



E 



ficoles Nationales Professionales. French national voca- 
tional schools, conducted under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of 
Commerce and Industry. The purposes of these institutions, of 
which four now exist, are: (i) To furnish the industries, particularly 
the mechanical industries, with persons trained in trade practice 
and capable of becoming foremen, heads of workshops, and possibly 
factory superintendents; and (2) to prepare students for higher 
technical schools. 

Economic Action. In general this term is applied to action 
of any sort by organized labor in the economic field, as opposed to 
POLITICAL ACTION. The term is of a little broader significance than 
INDUSTRIAL ACTION in that it may include such measures as trade 

UNION COOPERATION. 

Economic Cycle. See Industrial Cycle. 

Economic Determinism or Materialistic Conception of 
History. A philosophy of history as well as an economic theory, 
first enunciated by Karl Marx (1818-1883) and still adhered to by 
the orthodox exponents of scientific socialism. It asserts that the 
economic factor is the determining element in social evolution — 
that the economic structure of society, i. e., its methods of bread-and- 
butter-getting, supplies the basis upon which is erected its legal, 
political, and social super-structure. It does not contend ''that 
all history can be explained in economic terms alone, but that the 
chief considerations in himian progress are the social considerations, 
and that the important factor in social change is the economic 
factor." 

Economic Socialism. See Scientific Socialism. 

Economic Strike. In general, one that has to do solely with 
the relations between employers and employees, in regard to terms 
and conditions of employment; as distinguished from a political 

[ 143 ] 



STRIKE, or one instituted for non-economic ends. The commonest 
causes of economic strikes may be classified as follows: (i) For 
increase of wages; (2) against reduction of wages; (3) for reduction 
of hours; (4) against increase of hours; (5) concerning recognition 
of union and union rules ; (6) concerning employment of certain per- 
sons; (7) concerning employees working out of regular occupation; 
(8) concerning overtime work and pay; (9) concerning method and 
time of payment; (10) concerning Saturday part holiday; (11) con- 
cerning DOCKING, fines, and charges; (12) concerning "working 
CONDITIONS and rules. (See Sympathetic Strike.) 

Economic Worth. See Productivity Theory op Wages. 

Education. See Working-Class Education; Industrial 
Education; Vocational Education. 

Efficiency Engineer. See Production Manager. 

Efficiency Engineering. See Scientific Management. 

Efficiency Men. See Under-Cover Men. 

Efficiency Payments. Bonuses and premiums paid to work- 
ers who achieve or exceed a specified standard rate of production are 
often so called. Efficiency payments are a basic part of any scheme 

of SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT. (ScC BONUS SySTEM; PrEMIUM BoNUS 

System; Task Work; Reward Systems.) 

Efficiency Systems. See Scientific Management. 

Eight -Hour Commission. See Adamson Law. 

Eight -Hour Day. This term may denote any one of three 
wholly different things, as follows: (i) A working day actually 
limited to eight hours, known as the "straight" or "clean" eight- 
hour day; (2) an eight-hour shift, with three work periods daily, 
limited to eight hours each, for as many difterent sets of workers; 
or (3) the "basic" eight-hour day, which does not limit the hours of 
labor but merely gives the worker the same pay for eight hours that 
he previously received for nine or ten, with overtime pay for the 
time worked beyond eight hours. There can be no intelligent dis- 
cussion of the eight-hour day without a clear understanding and a 
distinct differentiation of these three forms. In general, what is 
known as the "eight-hour movement" has reference to a working 
day actually limited to eight hours. Those who support this move- 
ment are merely endeavoring to restore a condition that existed in 

[ 144] 



the 15th and i6th centuries — as Thorold Rogers and other labor 
historians have clearly shown. In the 17th century working hours 
began to lengthen, until a working day of fifteen hours, even for 
children, became by no means uncommon. The gradual ameliora- 
tion of such inhuman conditions is due almost wholly to working- 
class organization. By the middle of the last century the eight-hoiur 
day had become a practically universal ideal of organized labor. 
In America, particularly, it was long the central point in the entire 
labor programme and philosophy. Now it is largely a commonplace 
of industrial reform, and is generally regarded as no less desirable 
and beneficial to the employer than to the worker. The principle 
of the eight-hour day and the forty-eight hour week had been 
officially sanctioned by twenty-one countries before the first General 
Labor Conference of the League of Nations included the 
principle in its draft conventions. In the United States, the Federal 
government and more than half of the state governments have adopted 
eight-hour laws for employees engaged, either directly or by contract, 
on public works. In addition, a large number of cities have similar 
provisions in regard to municipal work. The Adamson law of 19 16 
established the basic eight-hour day for all railway employees en- 
gaged in interstate commerce. (See Steward's Theory of Wages; 
Short-Hour Movement; Hour Laws; Three Eights; Six-Hour 
Day; Forty-Hour Week; Forty-Four Hour Week; Working 
Hours in Russia; Eight-Hour Day in France; Working Hours 
in Germany.) 

Eight -Hour Day in France. A national eight-hour law was 
passed by the French government on April 23, 19 19. This is a gen- 
eral law designed to be put into effect by each industry through execu- 
tive order. The distribution of hours within the week or period, 
temporary and permanent exceptions, and rest periods are deter- 
mined by the executive order for each trade or locality. Consulta- 
tion with employers and workers is required in advance of promul- 
gation of orders and decrees. 

Eight -Hour Movement. See Eight-Hour Day; Short-Hour 
Movement. 

Elective Compensation Acts. See Workmen's Compensa- 
tion. 

Emergency Fund. See Strike Fund. 

Emergency Powers Act. A British Parliamentary enactment 
of October, 1920, which provides that exceptional measures shall 

[145] 



be taken to protect the public in case any action is taken or threat- 
ened by any person or body of persons to deprive the community of 
the essentials of life; interference with the supply and distribution 
of food, water, fuel, or light, or with the means of locomotion, to 
be considered such an emergency. The Act was put into effect for 
the first time immediately upon declaration of the coal-miners* 
strike in April, 192 1. 

Emerson System. A modification of the Taylor system of 
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT, dcviscd by Harrington Emerson. Theo- 
retically, Emerson's idea differs from Taylor's ** mainly in the separa- 
tion of what he calls the 'staff' from the 'line.' . . . He organizes the 
experts in a staff of advisers whose duty it is to transmit their 
knowledge to the line officers, by whom it is passed to the operators 
and put into effect. In other words, this staff has no executive au- 
thority, while in the Taylor system the executives are themselves the 
experts. Practically, the Emerson methods differ much more widely 
than this from those of the Taylor group in that it is Emerson's policy 
to establish standards of performance and a bonus for their attain- 
ment as early as possible and by methods which are comparatively 
rough." The time and motion study of the complete operation 
**goes down only to large groups of elementary motions, on which 
an OVER-ALL time similar to that which has been determined for 
years in all kinds of plants is ascertained. Emerson's times are 
expressed in minutes, whereas Taylor times are in hundredths of a 
minute." The method of wage payment which is an essential feature 
of the Emerson system resembles that of the Halsey plan and the 
Gantt system in that it sets a standard task and guarantees a time 
rate irrespective of output. Its distinctive character lies in the 
detailed graduation of the efficiency bonus by which it rewards 
greater output. The standard task is considered one hundred per 
cent efficiency, and each lesser amount of output is graded at a lower 
percentage of efficiency. In relation to this standard, "the worker 
who attains sixty-seven per cent or less gets his guaranteed day 
wages, and is paid a bonus on a sliding scale for every increase in 
the percentage of efficiency; at one hundred per cent the bonus 
amounts to twenty per cent of his wages and one per cent is added 
for each additional one per cent of efficiency." The Emerson plan 
is sometimes designated the "individual effort system." 

Emigration Allowances. See Travelling Benefits. 

Employee Representation. A general designation for various 
plans under which elected representatives of the employees of an 

[146] 



industrial plant meet with the management in collective discussion 
of working conditions, grievances, etc. In some cases the method of 
*' block representation" is followed — that is to say, the plant is 
arbitrarily divided into "blocks" or divisions of from fifty to two 
hundred employees each, irrespective of crafts, and each ** block" 
or division elects one or more representatives. In other cases, the 
various craft or occupational groups elect representatives on a pro- 
portional basis. A method that has proved effective in some large 
establishments is that known as the "Federal plan," which involves 
a "cabinet" consisting of management officials, an "upper house" 
of foremen and other supervisory officials, and a "lower house" 
representative of the rank and file employees. Employee represen- 
tation should never be confused with collective bargaining in 
the trade union sense. It is a method of collective discussion merely 
— a method often productive of excellent results in the adjustment of 
minor differences and misunderstandings and the attainment of 
increased plant efficiency. But it leaves untouched the fundamental 
economic inequality between employer and employed. After dis- 
cussion is ended, the ultimate decision on any disputed point almost 
invariably rests with the employer. On this account, also, the term 
"management sharing," often applied to schemes of employee 
representation, is a misnomer — except in a limited and relative 
sense. Employee representation is most commonly found in estab- 
lishments which oppose trade unionism. (See Shop Committee 
System; Leitch Plan; Rockefeller Plan; Arsenal Plan; Self- 
GovERNiNG Workshop; Workers* Control.) 

Employees' Compensation. See Workmen's Compensation. 

Employees* Compensation Commission. See United States 
Employees* Compensation Act. 

Employer's Liability. This term refers to the common-law 
doctrine, with such statutory modifications as may exist in any 
particular country or state, concerning the responsibility of an 
employer for financial indemnification of an employee injured while 
in the employer's service. Under the basic common law, an employee 
injured in the performance of his duties may prosecute in court, in 
a manner similar to all civil law-suits, a claim for damages against 
his employer; but to be successful he must establish that the acci- 
dent causing his injury was due to some fault of either commission 
or omission on the employer's part. But under the influence of cer- 
tain early decisions by British judges, the common law has gradu- 

[1471 



ally put fiirther limitations upon the rights of an employee as com- 
pared with the rights of an outsider, in civil actions for damages, 
by creating special "defenses," or special conditions under which 
an employer can evade his responsibility to the employee, which 
would not be applicable in case of injury to an outsider. The basic 
common law of employer's liability, together with the various special 
"defenses" that have gradually been engrafted upon it, are thus 
summarized by Professor E. Freund: "The employer is liable to 
an employee for full damages for any personal injury proximately 
due to the employer's negligence or wrongful act. It is the employ- 
er's duty to exercise ordinary care in his operations, in his relations 
with his employees, and in the selection of co-employees and to pro- 
vide ordinarily safe working places and conditions and ordinarily 
safe tools, machinery, etc., allowing, however, for the nature of the 
employment. The risks of employment, unavoidable by such means, 
the employee is deemed to have assumed and for injuries resulting 
therefrom there is no liability (rule of assimiption of ordinary risks). 
But even if the employer fails in his duty, yet if the employee with 
knowledge of such faults nevertheless continues in the employment, 
he is deemed to have assumed the risks therefrom, and if injured 
thereby, the employer is relieved from liability (defense of assimip- 
tion of risks). If an injury results from the wrong or fault of a co- 
employee, unless the employer has failed to exercise due care in his 
selection, or such co-employee is in fact the employer's alter ego 
and charged with his duties as such, the employer, being without 
fault, is not liable (fellow-servant rule, generally called the defense 
of fellow-servants or co-employee's fault). If the injury results in 
part from the employer's fault, but the injured employee's fault 
contributes thereto so that the injury would not have occiured 
without it, the employer is relieved from all liability (defense of 
contributory negligence). If the injury is fatal the employer escapes 
liability, because although he has done a wrong, it is deemed personal 
to the injured employee, so that no cause of action therefore survives 
his death. (This rule, however, has been so long and generally changed 
by statute, that it is now the common rule that the cause of action 
survives in favor of next of kin, etc.) Finally the burden of proof 
as to all points is upon the injured party, and in some states he has 
the additional burden of proving absence of contributory negligence." 
As a result of all this, it became possible for a worker to secure dam- 
ages for an injury only under the most exceptional conditions. After 
long agitation in the attempt to remedy this injustice, laws have been 
passed in nearly all important foreign countries, and in nearly all 

[148] 



states of the American union, abolishing one or more of the special 
"defenses," or limiting their applicability to certain special condi- 
tions or circumstances. These statutes are commonly known as 
"employer's liability laws." It should be carefully noted that 
employer's liability is a matter entirely separate and distinct from 
workmen's compensation. The former refers only to liability 
under the common law, and such statutory modifications of the com- 
mon law as exist in any particular country or state. Workmen's 
compensation, on the other hand, makes the employer automatically 
liable for injuries to his employees, without requiring the latter 
to go through the process of civil suit. It is rapidly superseding the 
common-law doctrine of employer's liability altogether in every 
civilized country. (See Trade Risk Principle; Common Employ- 
ment Doctrine; Superior Servant Doctrine; Fellow Servant 
Laws.) 

Employers and Workmen Act. A British Parliamentary 
enactment of 1875, replacing the Master and Servant Act of 1867, 
— a change of nomenclature which expressed a fundamental revolu- 
tion in the British law. ''Henceforth master and servant became, 
as employer and employee, two equal parties to a civil contract. Im- 
prisonment for breach of engagement was abolished. The legaliza- 
tion of trade unions was completed by the legal recognition of their 
methods. Peaceful picketing was expressly permitted. The old 
words 'coerce' and 'molest', which had, in the hands of prejudiced 
magistrates, proved such instruments of oppression, were omitted 
from the new law, and violence and intimidation were dealt with 
as part of the general criminal code. No act committed by a group 
of workmen was henceforth punishable unless the same act by an 
individual was itself a criminal offence. Collective bargaining, 
in short, with all its necessary accompaniments, was, after fifty 
years of legislative struggle, finally recognized by the law of the land." 

Employers' Associations. Organizations of employers for 
mutual benefit and united action — principally for dealing with 
or combating organized labor. Such associations "may be 
divided into two general classes, — those organized along trade 
lines and those disregarding trade lines. The first class of associa- 
tions contain only employers of a particular trade or of closely 
related trades; their organization is local, district, or national, in 
accordance with the structure of the opposing trade union. Parallel 
organizations of employers and employees — a necessary condition 
for collective bargaining— are here present, and such employers* 
11 [ 149 ] 



associations, whether conciliatory or militant in spirit, tend sooner 
or later to form agreements with the corresponding unions. The 
second class of associations, on the contrary, admit to membership 
employers in various trades, and in some cases non-union employees. 
They are not designed for collective bargaining, but for a reactionary 
destruction of the unions, and a return to the old system of individual- 
ism." Structurally and functionally, many large employers' asso- 
ciations of the trade type follow closely the lines of trade union organ- 
ization. Each form of combination — the employers' and the workers' 
— is organized by trades, in local, district and national bodies. Each 
has its city, state, and national forms of federation. Each involves 
the same restraint upon freedom of contract. Each has its defense 
fund for the relief of members involved in strike or lockout. Each 
employs business agents, organizers, strike deputies, how- 
ever the specific titles of these officials may vary. Each endeavors 
by propaganda, labor lobbies, and political activities to influence 
public opinion and legislation in its favor. Each employs persuasive 
or coercive methods as specific conditions make advisable. Finally, 
mention should be made of the tendency of the less scrupulous types 
of organization on both sides to form illicit combinations of a joint 
character, in disregard of "public" rights and interests — as evi- 
denced, in the particular case of the New York building trades, by 
the recent disclosures before the Lockwood Committee. But in 
the end, as impartial authorities point out, "probably the whole 
movement of organization among employers will be found to have 
hastened the era of peace by checking the extortionate demands of 
the more radical unions and by providing that degree of organiza- 
tion among employers which is required for the most effective kind 
of collective bargaining." According to Professor Commons, "em- 
ployers' associations are just as necessary to restrain labor unions, 
and labor unions to restrain employers' associations, as two houses 
of Congress, a Supreme Court, a president and political parties, 
to restrain social classes. Progress does not come when one associa- 
tion destroys the other, but when one association destroys the 
excesses of the other." Most employers' associations are supported 
by initiation and annual dues, often supplemented by monthly 
assessments proportioned according to the number of workers em- 
ployed by an individual member. (See Strike Insurance; Ex- 
clusive Agreement; Citizens' Alliances; Discrimination; Em- 
ployment Bureaus; Berufsgenossenschaften; Blacklist.) 

Employers' Closed Shop. See Closed Shop; Open Shop. 

[150] 



Employers' Housing. See Company Housing. 

Employment at Will, (i) Employment under arrangements 
that permit of its termination at any time when either employer 
or worker so desires. (2) The status of a trade union member who, 
because of old age or other disability, is exempt from the customary 
WORKING RULES of the union. (See Contract at Will; Exempt 
Cards.) 

Employment Bureaus or Employment Agencies. Public or 
private offices whose function it is to find jobs for workers and work- 
ers for jobs. They are of six general types, according as they are 
maintained (i) by private commercial interests, (2) by trade unions, 
(3) by workmen irrespective of particular trades, (4) by employers* 
associations, (5) by philanthropic organizations, and (6) by munici- 
pality, state, or nation. Those of the first-named type, commonly 
called "pay agencies" because of the fact that their revenues are 
derived from fees paid by the workers, are much the most numerous. 
Although a considerable number of these private agencies are of 
thoroughly reputable character, there is also a large class which 
merely preys on the imemployed and takes advantage of their need. 
On this account the pay agencies in this and some other countries 
are largely subject to restrictive legislation designed to prevent 
fraud and extortion and to insure moral surroundings. The second, 
third, fourth, and fifth types above mentioned belong to the class of 
"private" agencies which as a rule charge no fees. A notable 
example of the second type is to be found in the "day rooms" main- 
tained by the various printers' unions; and of the fourth type, in the 
chain of bureaus conducted by the National Metal Trades Associa- 
tion in fourteen large cities of the United States. But agencies of 
both these types are limited in usefulness by their partisan character, 
v/hich tends to make of them potential or actual weapons in labor 
warfare. Organizations of the fifth-named type are usually restricted 
in their activities to finding casual emplo5anent for only the most 
destitute cases that come under their notice. The sixth type, com- 
prising all "public" employment agencies, is the one which is most 
in accord with the social trend of the times, and which it is hoped 
will ultimately supersede the various other types altogether. (See 
Labor Exchanges; Intelligence Offices; House of Call System; 
United States Employment Service; Split-Fee System; Em- 
ployment Offices Coordination Bill; State Industrial Com- 
mission.) 

[151] 



Employment Certificates. In the United States the employ- 
ment of children below a certain age (fourteen years in all but five 
states) is forbidden. In most states documentary proof, supplied 
by parents or school authorities, of the child's age is demanded in 
the form of an employment certificate or working permit, which 
must be placed on file in an establishment before the child can be 
employed therein. Such certificates are sometimes called "working 
papers." (See Child Labor.) 

Employment Department. See Industrial Relations De- 
partment. 

Employment Management. That department or section of 
PERSONNEL ADMINISTRATION in a large industrial plant which has to 
do with the hiring, discharge, promotion, efficiency, etc., of employees, 
and with the maintenance of amicable relations between management 
and workers. The scope of employment management varies con- 
siderably in different establishments, and sometimes the whole 
field of personnel administration is included under this term. (See 
Employment Manager; Job Analysis; Rating Scale; Trade 
Tests; Three-Position Plan; Welfare Work.) 

Employment Manager. In many large industrial plants, an 
official who is responsible for the selection, training, education, 
promotion, transfer, and discharge of all employees. In some 
establishments the administration of welfare work is also the 
province of the employment manager, although it is more commonly 
assigned to a separate official. The terms " emplo^inent manager" 
and "labor manager" are usually synonymous. (See Employment 
Management.) 

Employment of Women, Young Persons, and Children 
Act, 1920. See Two Day-Shift System. 

Employment Offices Coordination Bill. A Canadian meas- 
ure, passed by the Dominion Parliament in 1918, the piurposes of 
which are stated as follows: (i) To aid and encourage the organiza- 
tion and coordination of employment offices and to promote uni- 
formity of methods among them; (2) to establish one or more clear- 
ing houses for the interchange of information between employment 
offices concerning the transfer of labor and other matters; (3) to 
compile and distribute information received from employment 
offices and from other sources regarding prevailing conditions of 
employment. 

[152] 



Employment Service Council. A Canadian governmental 
body which acts in an advisory capacity to the Minister of Labor. 
It includes a representative of each provincial government, besides 
workers', employees', soldiers', and central governmental repre- 
sentatives. 

Employment Service, United States. See United States 

Employment Service. 

Employmental Unionism. The structural type of trade 
union organization which aims at following the lines of the employers* 
organization is sometimes so called. Employmental unionism is 
perhaps best exemplified in the National Union of Railwaymen of 
Great Britain. The declared object of this body is *'to secure the 
complete organization of all workers employed on or in connection 
with any railway in the United Kingdom." Thus it seeks to enroll 
in one union, not merely all sections of railway workers, but actually 
all who are employed by any railway undertaking — thus including 
not only the engineering and wood-working mechanics in the railway 
engineering workshops, but also the cooks, waiters, and housemaids 
in railway hotels, the sailors and firemen on the railway companies* 
steamers, and the compositors, lithographers, and bookbinders in 
railway printing works — "even the men whom one, at least, of the 
largest companies keeps in constant employment at the manufacture 
of crutches and wooden legs for the disabled members of its staff." 
(See New Model of Trade Unionism.) 

Encroaching Control. This term is used in England to 
express the relative or progressive idea of workers' control — "the 
policy of transferring from the employer or his representatives to 
the organized workers through their trade unions and workshop 
organizations as many as possible of the functions at present con- 
trolled by CAPITALISM in the sphere of production." 

Encroachment. See Overlap; Undermining. 

EngePs Law of Family Expenditure. As a result of detailed 
study of FAMILY budgets in Saxony, Dr. Ernst Engel, an eminent 
German statistician, laid down the following general law of family 
expenditure, or domestic consumption: As the income of a family 
increases, (i) the percentage of expenditure for food decreases; 
(2) the percentage of expenditure for clothing remains approximately 
the same; (3) the percentage of expenditure for rent, fuel, and 
light is invariable; (4) the percentage of expenditure for education, 

[153] 



health, recreation, etc., increases. This "law" has been confirmed 
by many investigations. However, when the price-increases of the 
various groups of items vary widely, as was the case during the recent 
war, "Engel's law" does not hold true. 

Engineered Strike. See Spontaneous Strike. 

Engineering Revision. Sometimes used as a generic term 
to cover all applications of engineering skill which bear upon indus- 
trial SAFETY. It includes arrangement of buildings, the proper 
layout of the transportation system, the design of all machines with 
reference to safe operation, the provision of proper lighting — in 
fact, the almost endless changes and modifications which have taken 
place or ought to take place for safety reasons in the structure and 
arrangement of industrial plants. 

English Week. A working week of five and one-half days — 
so called because the English laws generally prescribe a half -holiday 
and a Sunday of rest for workers in industrial and commercial 
establishments. 

Enlightened Self-interest. See Laissez Faire. 

Enterpriser. See Entrepreneur. 

Enticement of Employees. By the old English common law 
it was illegal to entice an employee away from his employer, on the 
ground of the alleged damage to the employer. This doctrine was 
long since abandoned in Great Britain, and has seldom been applied 
by the authoritative courts in the United States. A different problem 
arises where intimidation is involved or where persuasion or coercion 
is directed toward those not already in employment. Another 
special exception may be noted in the case of workers employed by 
interstate carriers — as illustrated in the Debs case, when the in- 
junction issued prohibited among other things the persuasion of 
those in employment to quit or to refuse to perform their duties. 
In several of the Southern states statutes have been enacted which 
prohibit enticing away persons who are under contract of employ- 
ment, and which also prohibit laborers themselves from breaking 
such contracts. These statutes were apparently specifically designed 
to prevent negro farm laborers from breaking their contracts to 
"make a crop" by work throughout the season. 

Entrance into a Trade. Under this phrase Mr. and Mrs. 
Webb designate that class of trade union regulations described in 
the entry, Restriction of Numbers, in the present volume. 

[154] 



Entrepreneur. An owner of wealth who assumes the responsi- 
bility of production — one who organizes and manages an industrial 
or commercial enterprise, and supplies at least some part of the 
capital required. He is the modern employer of labor, the captain 
OF INDUSTRY. Such English terms as *' undertaker," **assumer," 
*' adventurer," and "enterpriser" were formerly used in designation 
of such a person; and the German term unternehmer is still occasion- 
ally used. But the French word entrepreneur is now given prefer- 
ence by most authorities. The entrepreneur is in one sense merely 
a capitalist, but he is the capitalist who takes all the risk of the 
undertaking and under our present system is entitled to the "profits," 
whereas the ordinary capitalist lends his money on reasonable 
security and obtains his share of the proceeds in "interest." The 
entrepreneur must not be confused with the manager or managing 
director, who is really a laborer working with his brain, though it 
often happens that in private businesses entrepreneur and manager 
are one and the same person. (See Wages of Management.) 

Equal Pay for Equal Work. Denotes the principle that 
women in industry should receive the same remuneration as that 
given to men, when engaged in the same occupation and upon the 
same kind of work. This principle received official recognition in 

the LABOR PLATFORM OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. MorC often 

than not, however, the work is not actually equal, since the sexes 
tend to be employed at separate occupations or perform different 
processes. Then, also, no two workers turn out exactly the same 
amount of work in the same time; neither is the work of exactly 
the same quality. "Equal pay for equal effort" or "Equal pay for 
similar duties" would be more accurately expressive of the principle 
involved. 

Equitable Pioneers. See Rochdale Plan. 

Erdman Act. A Congressional enactment of 1898, establish- 
ing machinery for the settlement of industrial disputes between the 
management and employees of railroads engaged in interstate com- 
merce. It was superseded by the Newlands Act in 19 13. 

Espionage in Industry. After an exhaustive investigation 
of this subject made by Sidney Howard for the Cabot Fund for 
Industrial Research, the investigator states: "The employer's 
practice of setting spies to observe and inform on workers in factory 
and imion has now every appearance of firm establishment. It has 
been developing inconspicuously these many years. Only an occa- 

[155] 



sional indiscretion in this place or in that has ever brought it any 
measure of public attention. Its doings are still far from a state of 
ideal publicity, but recent labor disputes have so frequently encotm- 
tered it, have dealt with it over so wide an area, that it can no longer 
be considered in terms of locality, of individual industries, or even 
of particular crises. It seems to have become something of a factor 
in American industry as a whole." It operates through the 
secret service of great corporations and powerful employers* 
ASSOCIATIONS, and provides the sole source of revenue for hundreds 
of prosperous labor detective agencies, large and small. It is a 
method which trade unions utilize as well as employers, though on 
a much smaller scale; one detective bureau in New York advertises 
espionage service to labor organizations only. When the Federal 
Commission on Industrial Relations examined the workers and 
emplo^^ers of American industr}% it found scarcely one who had not 
an admission to make or a story to tell of the workings of the indus- 
trial spy system. "Industrial spying," says the editor of ''The New 
Republic," "is a large industr>% drawing its profits out of the per- 
petuation of suspicion between employer and employee. Remove 
suspicion, establish industrial relations on the basis of frank confer- 
ence, as has been done in many industries, and the industrial spy 
loses his job. But where no conference exists, where employer and 
employee have no regular method of consultation, the spy appears 
as the real intermediary between capital and labor. Industrial 
espionage is a substitute for democratic industrial relations, a sneak- 
ing, underhanded, poisonous, trouble-making, trouble-perpetuating 
substitute. It is to the hygiene of industry what drug addiction is 
to the hygiene of the individual, a temporary and illusive relief that 
produces more trouble than ever it can cure." (See Under-Cover 
Men; Agent Provocateur; Inter-Church Steel Report.) 

Establishment. As ordinarily used, this may mean either 
(i) a single industrial factory or works, commonly called a plant, 
or (2) more than one factory or works, provided they are owned or 
controlled and operated by a single indi\adual, partnership, corpora- 
tion, or other owner or operator, and are located in the same town 
or city. 

Establishment Fund. This term refers to a plan, often 
adopted in large industrial or commercial undertakings, by which 
all the workers of one establishment, or of several correlated estab- 
lishments in one industr}^ make regular (usually monthly) contribu- 
tions to a fund for providing various forms of social insurance 

[156I 



in their own behalf. Such contributions are often compulsory, and 
occasionally the fund is enhanced by a more or less substantial 
subsidy from the employer. In any case, the company administers 
the fund. A stated period of service with the company is required 
before an individual employee may become a beneficiary of the 
fund, and usually he forfeits his payments if he leaves the company 
for any reason. Funds of this sort are particularly prevalent in the 
railroad industry in the United States, where they are often admin- 
istered by definite branches of the railway service known as "rail- 
way relief departments," "voluntary relief departments," "volun- 
tary benefit associations," etc. Establishment funds are sometimes 
called "relief funds" and "benefit funds"; but under whatever 
name, they should be carefully differentiated from trade union benefit 
funds. (See Old Age Insurance; Deferred Participation.) 

Estimate Work. See Lumper. 

Examining Board. In some trade unions, a local or district 
board which examines applicants for membership in the union, with 
a view to determining their qualifications. (See Admittance to 
the Trade Union.) 

Exception Principle. It is a basic principle of the Taylor 
system of SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT that the ablest men are or should 
be the highest in the organization. Therefore, "all matters within 
the capacity of subordinate officials are finally determined by them 
and only such matters as are beyond their scope or authority are 
passed up the line, thus leaving the higher officials free to devote 
their time to the broadest and most important problems of adminis- 
tration." This is commonly known as the "exception principle." 

Exchange Theory of Wages. As elaborated by the Austrian 
school of economists, in connection with the productivity theory 
OF WAGES, the exchange theory holds that "wages are advances 
made by the employer to the workman in order that he [the work- 
man] will not have to wait for the completion of the product before 
he can receive his share. The time element is important in modern 
industry, and this time space is bridged over by wages." 

Exclusion Policy of Trade Unionism. It is a very common 
practice of trade unionists to refuse to work with non-unionists, 
and to bring pressure to bear in various ways to compel employers 
to exclude non-unionists and others who are obnoxious to the union. 
The highest EngHsh judicial authority, the House of Lords, has held, 

[157] 



in the famous case of Allen v. Flood, that workingmen have the 
right to refuse to labor with others to whom they object, or, indeed, 
to refuse to labor on any ground which seems to them proper. Amer- 
ican courts, on the other hand, usually take the position that such 
action on the part of the unions is an interference with the liberty 
both of the employer and the workingman. But in this connection, 
as with all other matters of trade union policy, it is vitally important 
to examine the underlying motive or object. "The chief purpose 
of the trade union is to increase the market price of that kind of 
labor which the members have to sell. As soon as the union acquires 
a partial control of the market, strong enough to have some effect 
upon wages, all workingmen in the trade, both within it and without 
it, begin to profit by the increase. Workmen outside may gain in 
either of two ways. They may get the full rate which the members 
of the union get, or, by cutting under the union rate, they may secure 
steadier employment. In either case the union feels that it has a 
grievance against them. The maintenance of the union organization, 
through which the wage is upheld, costs time and trouble and money. 
More important than anything else, it involves for those who are 
active in it the peril of the displeasure of their employers and the 
loss of their livelihood. If the non-union man secvires a rate of wages 
above what he could get if the tmion did not exist, the members of 
the union feel that he has made a gain directly at their expense. . . , 
If he is not willing to share the burden, it seems to them only just 
that he should be excluded from the gain. If, on the other hand, 
nonunion men, as efficient as the members of the union, compete 
for employment by cutting under the union rates, there is a great 
weakening of the collective bargaining. The employer will prefer 
the nonunion to the union man because he is cheaper. Those who 
are in the union will be tempted to leave it, because their chances 
of employment will be greater outside than in. The final result 
of the process, if permitted to work itself out freely, will be, it is 
declared, the destruction of the organization itself. If the union is 
willing to receive any competent person into its ranks, no man can 
complain of being absolutely deprived of work because union men 
refuse to work with him so long as he fails to join the organization. 
When, however, a union has established a substantial control of its 
special kind of labor, the temptation arises to restrict the number of 
members. This is occasionally done by an absolute refusal to receive 
new candidates. Such action is, however, rare; the forms in which 
this tendency more commonly appears are restriction on apprentice- 
ship and high initiation fees." (See Restriction of Numbers; 

[158] 



Monopoly Policy of Trade Unionism; Compulsory Trade 
Unionism.) 

Exclusive Agreement. A form of trade agreement, at one 
time common in the building trades, by which the members of an 
employers' association agree to hire none but union men, while 
the unions on thei side agree to work exclusively for the associated 
employers. Such an agreement, among its other effects, compelled 
the contractors of a locality to become and remain members of the 
employers' association, as otherwise they could not obtain a sufficient 
number of skilled workmen. The union men were usually given 
higher wages or shorter hours, and in return the association obtained 
a monopoly of the local contracting in the particular trade concerned. 
Although declared illegal by the courts, the agreement was frequently 
made, and is yet sometimes found, in spite of the fact that the national 
organizations now oppose its use. (See Birmingham Alliances.) 

Executive Committee. See Trade Union Government — 
Local. 

Exempt Cards. In some trade unions, members over a certain 
age and physically unable to earn the standard rate of wages are 
granted "exempt cards" or *' old-age certificates" which permit them 
to work at certain specified rates below the union standard. (See 
Employment at Will; Standard Rate.) 

Exemption of Wages. See Wage Exemption. 

Existence Minimum. See Minimum Subsistence Level. 

Exploitation. The use of persons or materials as a means 
to profit making. Economists use the word without reproach; 
but socialists and others who condemn the profits system make 
exploitation synonymous with the idea of unethically taking advan- 
tage of human necessity, ignorance, good nature, credulity, etc. 
In this sense scientific socialists regard all existing capital as con- 
sisting, in essence, of exploited "labor." 

Expropriatory General Strike. See General Strike. 

Expulsion. See Finances of Trade Unions; Discipline. 

Extra -Hazardous Occupations. See Hazardous Occupa- 
tions. 

Extractive Industries. See Industry. 

Extremists. See Left, Left Wing. 

[159] 



F. L. P. See Farmer-Labor Party. 

F. S. See Fabian Society. 

Fabian Research Department. See Labor Research De- 
partment. 

Fabian Society. An association for socialistic research and 
propaganda, founded in London in 1884, and numbering among its 
early members Bernard Shaw, Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Webb, Graham 
Wallas, H. G. Wells, and other well-known persons. It sought at 
first to advance the cause of socialism by ** permeating" the con- 
ventional political parties with advanced economic ideas. Later, 
however, the Society definitely entered the field of labor politics, 
and in 1900 helped to found the Independent Labor Party. The 
Fabian leaders, particularly Mr. and Mrs. Webb, have exerted a 
strong influence on the British labor movement ever since. In 19 18 
Mr. Webb was one of the principal factors in drafting the British 
Labor Party's famous reconstruction programme, "Labor and the 
New Social Order." The Fabian Society has, at least until lately, 
advocated a programme tending strongly in the direction of adminis- 
trative State socialism. Its members are critical of Marxian 
formulae, and believe for the most part in the gradual development 
of society into a cooperative commonwealth. (See Permeation 
Policy; Labor Research Department; Fabianism.) 

Fabianism. Politically, the doctrine or method of ''making 
haste slowly," the term being derived from the name of Quintus 
Fabius Maximus, a Roman general noted for his cautious and 
dilatory tactics. In the modem socialist movement, a narrower 
usage confines this term to the theories and practice of the British 
Fabian Society. 

Fachschulen. In Germany, specialized trade schools for 
apprentices, coordinate with the continuation schools and alterna- 
tive to them. They are for the most part conducted by trade guilds. 

[160] 



Factory Acts. A general term covering all legislation, whether 
applied to factories or to other industrial or commercial establish- 
ments, in regard to such matters as safety and health of workers, 
hours of labor, child labor, pa3rment of wages, etc. The term has 
usually been confined to such laws as require continuous official 
inspection and enforcement; as distinguished from laws which in- 
volve the bringing of an individual court action (such as mechanic's 

LIEN, WAGE EXEMPTION, EMPLOYER'S LIABILITY, Ctc), the latter 

class being known as labor legislation. This distinction, however, 
is tending to disappear, and "labor legislation" is now generally 
used in designation of all laws relating to labor. 

Factory and Workshop Acts. Factory legislation in Great 
Britain dates from the year 1802, and between that date and 1856 
nimierous statutes were passed to regulate the hours of labor of 
women, young persons, and children in textile factories, and to make 
provisions for their safety, etc. In 1864 and 1867 certain non- 
textile factories and workshops were dealt with; and in 1878, as a 
result of a Royal Commission appointed in 1875, a comprehensive 
Factory and Workshop Act was passed. This was followed by 
various other Acts in 1883, 1889, 1891, 1895, and 1897. Then the 
provisions of these Acts were consolidated in the Factory and Work- 
shop Act of 1 90 1. This, with various amending Acts of later date, 
is now the principal general labor code of Great Britain. The matters 
dealt with are ventilation, sanitation, cleanliness, fencing of machin- 
ery, fire-escapes and exits, conduct of dangerous trades, etc. For 
•vvomen, young persons (those between fourteen and eighteen years 
of age), and children there are special regulations in regard to working 
hours, etc. The employment of children under twelve years of age 
is forbidden. An elaborate system of factory and workshop inspec- 
tion is provided for. (See Particulars Clause ; Sanitation and 
Safety.) 

Factory Committee or Council. See Works Council. 

Factory Committees in Russia. See Trade Union Organi- 
zation IN Russia; Trade Unions in Russia; Workers' Control 
in Russia. 

Factory Inspection. The several American states and those 
foreign countries which have enacted laws protecting employees 
and regulating their hours in factories and in mines have found it 
necessary, in order to secure the enforcement of such legislation, 
to create staffs of inspectors with police powers. The duties of these 

[161] 



inspectors include the enforcement of the laws providing for safety 
and sanitation; those prohibiting child labor, in which case usually 
cooperation is maintained with the school authorities and the truant 
officers where such officers exist; those for the regulation of sweat 
SHOPS, bake shops, and mercantile establishments; those regulating 
employment on public works, and so on. In those states which have 
STATE INDUSTRIAL COMMISSIONS, the factory inspection system is 
usually under the control of the commission; in other states the 
system is separately organized. 

Factory Schools. Trade schools carried on in connection 
with large industrial establishments, the instruction being designed 
primarily as a substitute for apprenticeship, are commonly so 
called. The term is also sometimes applied to general continuation 
SCHOOLS conducted by individual employers within their own estab- 
lishments. (See Corporation Schools; Vestibule Schools; Rail- 
way Schools; Works Schools.) 

Factory System. As marking the foiurth and latest stage 
in modem industrial evolution, this is the method of large- 
scale production (superseding the domestic system) under which 
workers and machinery are concentrated in specially designed build- 
ings known as factories. This method usually involves the use of 
complex machinery and tends toward a minute division of labor. 
The individual initiative of the domestic system is replaced by cor- 
porate responsibility, and the control of industry passes definitely 
into the hands of the owners of capital. In many cases the organiza- 
tion of production has extended until it involves vastly more than 
the single factory — until it includes, in a unified system, many fac- 
tories, and sometimes a great variety of industries, cooperating 
toward the production of a single ultimate product or class of related 
products. (See National Economy; Labor Problem; Wage 
System.) 

Factory System in the Garment Trades. As distinguished 
from the contract system or any form of outwork, the term "fac- 
tory system" denotes in the garment trades the plan or method 
under which articles are produced entirely upon the premises of the 
mantifactiorer. The term "Boston system" is sometimes used in a 
similar sense. (See Inside Shop.) 

Fair, Unfair. As used by trade unionists, these adjectives 
commonly denote the acceptance or non-acceptance of union regu- 
lations and conditions, on the part of either employers or fellow- 

[162I 



workers. Thus, a "fair shop" or ''fair house" is one that employs 
union workers under union conditions; while an "unfair shop" or 
"unfair house" does not. A "fair man" is one who belongs to a 
union; an "unfair man" is a non-unionist. The word "foul" is still 
occasionally used in the sense of "unfair" — as for example, "foul 
shop," "foul man," etc. (See Fair List; Unfair List.) 

Fair Day's Pay. See Fair Wage. 

Fair Day's Work. Like its companion term, fair wage or 
"fair day's pay," this phrase is too relative and abstract to permit 
of precise definition. As an employer's standard, it may be either 
(i) the amount of work which he personally and arbitrarily fixes as 
a "fair" standard; (2) the amount produced by the most proficient 
worker in his employ — sometimes a professional ' * speeder " or " pacer ' ' ; 
(3) an amount determined by careful averaging of past shop records 
for the entire working force. As a worker's standard, it may also be 
a purely personal and arbitrary one; or it may be an amount deter- 
mined by collective understanding after weighing all the facts and 
factors connected with the particular work to be done. In any 
of the above cases, however, what is considered "fair" by one side 
might be counted grossly "unfair" by the other. Unless determined 
by COLLECTIVE BARGAINING, there is little chance of fixing a standard 
acceptable to both sides. (See Production Standards.) 

Fair List. As sometimes published or otherwise circulated 
by trade unions, this is a list of employers in a specified town or 
district who comply with union regulations and conform to union 
conditions. In a general way it corresponds, on the trade union .side, 
to the employers' whitelist. (See Unfair List.) 

Fair Wage. As far as it is possible to frame any definition 
of so relative and abstract a term, the following (quoted from Tead 
and Metcalf's "Personnel Administration") is perhaps as satis- 
factory as any other: "A fair wage is one which, in relation to the 
work agreed upon, under existing circumstances, with the then avail- 
able facts and taking account of all active factors, the interested 
parties agree to be reasonable, possible, and expedient." As officially 
used, the term "fair wage" may mean, in the United States, either 
a living wage or a wage established by the highest rate of payment 
for the particular kind of work in a particular industry; in England 
and Canada it generally means the prevailing rate of wages for a 
specified kind of work in a specified industry. (See Fair Wages 
Clause; Fair Day's Work.) 

[ 163 ] 



Fair Wages Clause. Under a clause adopted by Parliament 
in 1909, it is provided in all contracts made by the British govern- 
ment, and in the majority of those made by the local authorities, 
that the contractor must pay rates of wages and observe hours of 
labor not less favorable than those commonly recognized by employ- 
ers and trade societies in the trade and district where the work is 
carried out. The contractor who sub-lets his work is made respon- 
sible for the observance of the fair wages clause by the sub-contractor. 

Familistere. A famous labor copartnership society at 
Guise, France. It was started in 1859, as a community settlement, 
by Jean Baptiste Godin, a French socialist and wealthy iron manu- 
facturer. In addition to the workshops, there are homes for the work- 
people, stores, hospital, nurseries, theatre, and other buildings; 
all belonging to the society and managed on a copartnership basis. 

Family Budget. The necessary expenses of a family over a 
given length of time. The determination by labor statisticians 
of a "standard" family budget, based on a system of averages for 
a particular locality at a particular time, is a necessary preliminary 
to the fixing of a minimum wage. There are various "levels" upon 
which such a standard budget may be calculated — the minimum 

SUBSISTENCE LEVEL, the MINIMUM COMFORT LEVEL, etC. With a 

given level in mind, the process involves two inquiries: (i) The 
determining of a "quantity budget," i.e., the nimiber or quantity 
of the various things necessary to maintain the living level referred 
to; and (2) the ascertaining of a "cost budget," i.e., the total cost of 
such numbers or quantities at prevailing prices. Such budgets are 
usually calculated for what is known as a "standard family" of five 
persons, consisting of husband, wife, and three dependent children 
below the age of fourteen. (See Engel's Law of Family Expend- 
iture.) 

Family or Household System. The first or original stage in 
modern industrial evolution is commonly so called. At this stage, 
according to W. J. Ashley, "there is no separate body of professional 
craftsmen at all; where all that can be called 'industry,' as distin- 
guished from agriculture, is carried on within the household group, 
for the satisfaction of its own needs, by persons whose main business 
is the cultivation of the land or the care of flocks. The main activities 
of all except the fighting class are still in this stage preponderantly 
agricultural; but the cultivators of the soil make their own clothes 
and furniture and utensils, and there is practically no outside 'mar- 

[164I 



kef for their manufactures." (See Household Economy; Feud- 
alism.) 

Family Wage. Considering the family, rather than the indi- 
vidual, as an economic unit, this term denotes the total income of a 
family several members of which are wage-earners. The ** family 
wage" is an important factor in keeping down the general wage 
level. According to the staff report of the Federal Commission on 
Industrial Relations, "all experience has shown that in the end 
the father's wages'are reduced by about the amount that the children 
earn. . . . Examination of the wages in different industries corrobo- 
rates the theory that in those industries, such as textiles, where women 
and children can be largely utilized, the wages of men are extremely 
low." (See Family Budget.) 

Farm Labor. See Agricultural Labor. 

Farmer -Labor Party. Formed at Chicago in July, 1920, 
after an unsuccessful attempt at fusion between the National 
Labor Party, the Non-Partisan League, and a liberal organiza- 
tion known as the ** Committee of Forty-Eight." As finally consti- 
tuted, the Farmer-Labor Party consists mainly of members of the 
former National Labor Party, reinforced by various farmers' organi- 
zations. The Party put a national ticket in the field for the presi- 
dential election of November, 1920, polling nearly 300,000 votes, 
and adopted a platform similar in most respects to that of the Na- 
tional Labor Party. 

Farming Out. In an industrial sense this term is perhaps 
most commonly used in designation of the arrangement, particularly 
prevalent in the garment trades, by which all or part of a manufac- 
turing process is assigned to home workers instead of being carried 
on in a factory or workshop. (See Home Work; Home Finishing; 
Pin Money Workers.) 

Fascisti. An Italian "patriotic" organization which has 
sprung up as a result of the revolutionary political-industrial con- 
ditions in Italy since the armistice of 1918. The Fascisti, which until 
about the close of 1920 was confined to a small "bitter-ender" nation- 
alist organization in Romagna and Tuscany, is now a nation-wide 
organization with branches in nearly every city and village in Italy. 
The leaders claim 2,000,000 members. Squads are prepared at any 
moment to undertake any violence at command. Organized mili- 
tarily, it is a sort of Ku Klux Klan, owing military obedience to a^ 
12 [165] 



local general, who is responsible to the commander in chief, Musso- 
lini, an ex-Socialist editor of Milan, who maintains a permanent 
staff. The Fascisti are composed chiefly of students, former soldiers, 
and shopkeepers, led by intellectuals and idealists, but because of 
the violent nature of their programme they include many rov/dies 
and gunmen from the worst strata of society. The method of the 
Fascisti is intimidation of all organizations with revolutionary tend- 
encies, and of their leaders and members. It is now virtually im- 
possible in Italy for communist, socialist, or labor union leaders to 
call or hold public meetings. The Fascisti are often supported by 
government troops, who preserve an appearance of neutrality but 
arrest the communists who resist the Fascisti. 

Fat. See Clicking System. 

Father of the Chapel. See Chapel; Shop Steward. 

Fatigue. One of the most important factors in industrial 
operations, and also one of the m-ost ignored. Industrial fatigue, 
according to one definition, is *'a diminished efficiency of the organism 
occurring after labor and partly dependent upon it"; in another 
definition, it is "the sum of the results of activity which show them- 
selves in diminished capacity for doing work." Prolonged or exces- 
sive effort, according to Dr. E. M. Bogardus, in his book on "The 
Relation of Fatigue to Industrial Accidents," has two important 
physiological effects: (i) An actual exhaustion of the energy-yielding 
material in the muscles; and (2) the formation of various fatigue 
substances which exert a poisonous and paralyzing effect upon the 
whole organism, particularly the nervous system. The latter is the 
more important of the two, and accounts for a considerable percentage 
of all industrial accidents. Fatigue, with all its resultant dangers 
and disadvantages, is especially incident to night work, overtime 
work, and speeding up. Given adequate equipment, efficient admin- 
istration of the plant, and a proper spirit among the employees, 
it is (quite aside from its larger social implications) the greatest 
single obstacle to maximum output. Fatigue diminishes output not 
only directly, but indirectly, by increasing accidents and the propor- 
tion of spoiled work, and by causing sickness and absences of em- 
ployees. "Fatigue costs," it has been said, "may be expressed in 
terms of the effect upon health, longevity, safety, labor supply, 
employment stability, industrial contentment, productive efficiency 
I — i.e., alertness, speed, accurate work, minimtmi waste — as well as 
[output and profits." It has been estimated by a recent writer on this 

[ 166 ] 



subject that there is a loss because of fatigue of twenty cents per 
day per year for each employee, which would reach the staggering 
total loss to the nation, for the 40,000,000 workers of the United 
States, of approximately two and one-half billion dollars a year. 
The term "overstrain" is often used in a sense generally synony- 
mous with fatigue. (See Overwork ; Fatigue Study ; Job Analysis ; 
Labor Audit.) 

Fatigue Study. The systematic investigation of the effects 
of working conditions and hours of labor upon the physical and 
mental condition of workers. Fatigue study is often included among 
the specific functions of personnel administration. 

Federacion Libre. See Porto Rican Free Federation of 
Workers. 

Federacion Obrera Regional Argentina (Argentine Feder- 
ation of Labor). Founded in 190 1, as a national trade union organi- 
zation of non-political character. It has been involved in nimierous 
strikes, in which many lives were lost, and has met with governmental 
repression on several occasions. In 1920 the Federation had an 
affiliated membership of 70,000. 

Federal Commission on Industrial Relations. A body 
created by act of Congress in August, 191 2, for the principal purpose 
of inquiring into existing industrial conditions and relations and the 
causes of industrial unrest in the United States. The Commission 
consisted of nine members, appointed by the President, three of 
whom were employers and three representatives of labor. With the 
aid of a large staff of expert investigators, and by the examination 
of witnesses representing every possible point of view on industrial 
affairs and relations, the Commission made an exhaustive investiga- 
tion in the field assigned to it. The evidence presented was published 
in eleven large volumes in 191 6. No unanimous report was agreed 
upon by the Commission, which separated into two groups issuing 
separate reports and recommendations. What is known as the "staff 
report" or the "Manly report" was signed by four members, while 
the " Commons-Harriman report" was signed by five members — 
in each case, however, with separate comments or reservations by 
most of the individual members. 

Federal Industrial Commission. A body of eighteen mem- 
bers created by act of Congress in June, 1898. The duties of the 
Commission and the scope of its inquiries are indicated in the follow- 
ing sections of the creating act: (i) *'It shall be the duty of this 

[167] 



commission to investigate questions pertaining to immigration, 
to labor, to agriculture, to manufacturing, and to business, and to 
report to Congress and to suggest such legislation as it may deem 
best upon these subjects." (2) "It shall furnish such information 
and suggest such laws as may be made a basis for uniform legislation 
by the various States of the Union, in order to harmonize conflicting 
interests and to be equitable to the laborer, the employer, the pro- 
ducer, and the consumer. " The Report of the Commission, published 
1 90 1-2 by the Government Printing Office in nineteen volimies, con- 
tains a mass^of material of the highest value relating to labor organiza- 
tion, labor policies, etc., in the United States. 

Federal Labor Union. A form of local labor organization 
within the American Federation of Labor, consisting of seven or 
more wage-earners in various crafts or industries who are not mem- 
bers of any other body affiliated with the A. F. of L. The main 
fimction of a federal labor union is to gather and hold together 
scattered local workers in different crafts or trades, until the forma- 
tion of LOCAL TRADE UNIONS is possiblc or Until the separate crafts 
are nationally organized — in other words, to serve as a recruiting 
station. Federal labor unions are chartered by and affiliate directly 
with the A. F. of L., which bears the same relation to them as does 
a national or international union to its local branches. They are 
designated by nimiber — e.g., "Federal Labor Union No. 15938." 
(See Mixed Local.) 

Federal Plan. See Employee Representation ; Leitch Plan. 

Federated Press League. See Labor Press. 

Federation. In labor terminology, an alliance of a group of in- 
dependent unions in one or several industries, covering either a single 
locality, a district, a country, or the world. Ordinarily the process 
of federation implies a somewhat loose connection as contrasted with 
amalgamation, the purpose of the alliance being usually mutual 
support in disputes, the adjustment of mutual differences as to 
JURISDICTION, the furthering of propaganda work, etc.; and each 
union in such an alliance as a rule remains fully autonomous. But 
some federations have become virtually a single self-governing and 
negotiating body, — as for example, the Miners' Federation of Great 
Britain, which acts for the whole industry on national issues, as if 
it were an amalgamated union. In fact, as G. D. H. Cole points out, 
"federations of almost every degree of intensity exist: and it is never 

[168I 



possible, without particular study of each case, to discover what the 
mere fact of federation implies. Some federations are merely polit- 
ical, some in practice concern themselves almost solely with demar- 
cation disputes; others are regarded by their promotors merely as 
steps to amalgamation, and yet others are the real centres of indus- 
trial action. Their efficiency depends partly on their constitution 
and powers, and partly on the nature of the industry which they 
cover." (See Affiliation; Industry Federation; Federation 
d'Industrie; Federazione dei Mestiere.) 

Federation d'Industrie. In France, a national federation 
of all the SYNDicATS, or local trade unions, in a single industry. 
Most of the national labor organizations are of this type; the craft 
federations (federations de metier) having gradually disappeared 
since 1906, after which date they were forbidden affiliation with the 
CoNFfiDfiRATiON GfiNERALE DU Travail. Insidc the national fed- 
erations, the constituent syndicats are generally fully autonomous 
and are able to seize any favorable moment for a strike or other local 
action, without consulting the central body. The role of the Feder- 
ations is "to organize and strengthen the syndicats, to undertake 
campaigns of a general kind, and to reinforce the resistance to the 
employer." They are, in short, mainly organs of coordination and 
not of control. But there are some important exceptions to this 
autonomous system. Some of the national organizations are known 
as Syndicats Nationaux; these, as a rule, possess more highly cen- 
tralized powers than the Federations and are therefore more formi- 
dable fighting bodies. 

Federation de Metier. See FfiDfiRATiON d'Industrie; Syn- 

DICAT. 

Federation des Bourses du Travail. See Bourses du 
Travail. 

Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions. See 
American Federation of Labor. 

Federation of Trade Unions of Western Japan. See 
Japanese Labor Organizations. 

Federazione dei Mestiere. The national federations of 
trades in Italy, each representing the various labor organizations 
in a single national industry, are so called. Every local branch of 
one of these trade federations is affiliated with its local camera del 
lavoro (chamber of labor) ; while the national bodies are themselves 

[169] 



affiliated, for the most part, in either the Confederazione Generale 
DEL Lavoro or the Unione Syndicale Italiana. 

Fellow Servant Laws. Those state or national statutes 
which modify or abolish the common-law principle known as the 
"fellow servant rule" or common employment doctrine, under 
employer's liability, are generally so called. (See Superior 
Servant Doctrine.) 

Fellow Servant Rule. See Employer's Liability; Fellow 
Servant Laws; Common Employment Doctrine. 

Fellowship Piece Work. A form of cooperative piece 
WORK often practiced in British engineering shops. It is thus de- 
scribed by G. D. H. Cole: "In practically all engineering districts 
the recognized basis for collective piece-work is that all balances 
should be paid through the office in proportion to time-rates and 
hours worked. This may be done, but, when they have come outside 
the office, a group of men may prefer to 'pool' earnings, and redis- 
tribute the balances on some mutually arranged basis, usually that 
of complete equality, irrespective of the hours worked. This 'fellow- 
ship ' system is usually confined to men of the same trade, and often 
to a small group of men who choose to work together upon it. It is, 
of coiurse, purely voluntary, and 'pools' and 'fellowships' readily 
form and dissolve. A particular application of this system arises 
in shops in which some jobs are being done on piece-work and some 
on day-rates. In such cases the men in the shops sometimes arrange 
for certain men to do all the time-work jobs, but for all alike to share 
in the 'pool' at the week's end." 

Feudalism. A name given to the social system that prevailed 
in northern and western Europe during the Middle Ages, and that 
completely disappeared only with the final freeing of the serfs in 
Russia in 1863. Its main peculiarity was that the bulk of the land 
was divided into "feuds" or "fiefs," held by their owners on condi- 
tion of the performance of certain duties, especially military services, 
to a superior lord — sometimes the sovereign of the country. The 
landholders divided their holdings among lesser nobles, who in turn 
allotted them to the serfs or peasantry, the latter doing all the work 
of cultivation and thus maintaining the various classes of tenants 
and lords above them. Social relations were fixed according to the 
varying status of the landholders. Feudalism was fatally weakened 
by the substitution of money payments for dues rendered in service 

[170] 



on the land, and was finally swept away through the growth of 
industry and commerce. (See Serfdom; Benevolent Feudalism.) 

Final Appeal Court. See British Trade Union Organiza- 
tion. 

Finance Committee. See Trade Union Government — 
Local. 

Finances of Trade Unions. In most of the trade unions of 
Great Britain there seems to be complete community of funds 
between the local branches. Mr. and Mrs. Webb remark that when 
the local clubs began to draw together into national unions it was 
assumed, as a matter of course, that any cash in possession of any 
branch was available for the needs of any other branch. Before a 
central authority was established, the several local bodies were ex- 
pected spontaneously to send their surplus moneys to the aid of any 
district engaged in a strike. When there came to be a common 
treasury the local treasuries were treated as parts of it, and as col- 
lectively composing it. This involves, of course, uniform contribu- 
tions from all the members throughout the organization. "The 
financial evolution of the American unions has been different. Na- 
tional treasuries have been established, not by the assumption of 
centralized control over the local treasuries, but by exacting a 
definite contribution from each local union, in proportion to its mem- 
bership, and placing the resulting fund in the immediate possession 
of the national officers. In most of our national trade unions each 
local is substantially as free to fix the payments of its own members 
as if it had no connection with a national body. The regular methods 
by which the national organization replenishes its treasiuy are a 
CHARTER FEE ou the Organization of new locals, and a per capita 
tax of so much per week or per month, levied on the locals in propor- 
tion to their membership. In some unions a part of each initiation 
fee is also payable to the national treasury. Another very common 
source of revenue is the profit made on the sale of stationery and 
supplies to the locals." The revenue from fines for infractions of 
discipline should also be mentioned. Several unions, including 
some of the strongest, have uniform initiation fees and membership 
dues throughout, and treat the total receipts substantially as a 
common fund, after the manner of the British unions, or divide 
them between the national treasury and the local treasuries accord- 
ing to some fixed rule. ' ' In some unions all the receipts of the national 
treasury go into one general fund. In others they are divided into 

[171] 



special funds for particular purposes. The two commonest special 
funds are that for strikes and that for sick and death benefits. 
Particular fractions of the receipts are sometimes set aside for other 
purposes, such as the payment of various insurance benefits, the 
support of the official journal, and the payment of the expenses of 
conventions. The financial officers of the national organizations 
are, almost without exception, required to give bonds signed by some 
surety company. The cost of the bond is regularly paid by the or- 
ganization. It IS very common, also, to limit the amount of money 
which the secretary or the treasurer may retain in his hands, and to 
require that all above a certain small maximum be deposited in some 
bank." The funds in the hands of local treasurers do not usually 
exceed a few hundred dollars, and those in the hands of a national 
treasurer seldom exceed a few thousand. The great accumulations 
of some of the British unions, amounting in some cases to a million 
or a million and a half dollars, have few parallels in America. Under 
these circumstances the only resources of the unions when trouble 
comes are voluntary contributions and special assessments. In 
a great strike, which arouses v/idespread interest, voluntary contri- 
butions are sometimes a more important source of revenue than 
might be supposed. The only means of enforcing the payment of 
trade union revenues is, of course, suspension or expulsion from the 
union. Some unions emphasize the penalty by charging more for 
reinstatement than for original admission. In most cases members 
are liable to suspension when they are in default for from three to 
six months' dues. The national union may suspend a local union 
or cancel its charter if its per capita tax or assessments fall behind 
for a period which varies in different organizations from two months 
to a year, but is oftenest put at six months. (See Financier ; Stamp 
Receipt System; Check-Off System; Collectors; Members in 
Good Standing; Mutual Insurance; Strike Fund.) 

Financier. In some unions, notably the Cigar Makers' 
International Union, where the union funds are held by the several 
locals instead of being deposited in a central treasury, this is an 
official of the central organization who goes from local to local, 
generally arriving unexpectedly, for the purpose of examining the 
financial accounts and transactions of the locals. In the Iron 
Molders' Union, the financier is an official who keeps the books of 
the national association and maintains general oversight over those 
of the local branches. (See Deputy System.) 

Finks. See Under-Cover Men. 

[172] 



Finnish Trade Union Federation. See Suomen Ammat- 

TIJARJESTO. 

Fire Boss. See Mine Manager. 

First Inspection. By this term, commonly used in connection 
with SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT, is meant the minute inspection of 
the first piece to be produced in a "lot order," rather than waiting 
for the entire lot to be finished before it is inspected; the object 
being to detect faults at the beginning of the operation and before 
more than one piece can be spoiled. 

First Internationale. See Internationale. 

Fixed Group Demand Theory. See Lump of Labor Theory. 

Floaters. See Migratory Labor. 

Fluidity of Labor. See Mobility of Labor. 

Flunkey. In labor slang, a migratory worker who does odd 
jobs around a labor camp — such as fire-building, helping the camp 
cook, cleaning out bunk-houses, etc. The terms **btdl cook" and 
"crumb boss" are often used in a similar sense. 

Fodder Basis. See Minimum Subsistence Level. 

Fogger. See Little Master. 

Folded Arms Strike. See Gr£ve aux Bras CroisSs. 

Fonds Nationale de Caisse. A Belgian organization, estab- 
lished by royal decree in January, 192 1, for the collection and dis- 
tribution of sums of money to aid the unemployed, in case of indus- 
trial crises, who are affiliated with the officially recognized **Caisses 
de Chdmage," which are regularly established organizations for the 
aid of the unemployed. The Fonds Nationale de Caisse is to be 
maintained by government subventions, by subscriptions, and by 
voluntary contributions from employers and from the public. It is 
to be administered by a council composed of a president and from 
six to nine administrators who are to be named by the king for a 
term of three years. 

Force Anarchists. Those persons who commit individual 
acts of violence in the name of anarchism. Such persons are re- 
pudiated by the great majority of anarchists, who are either opposed 
to the use of force in any form and under any conditions or would 

[173] 



employ it soleh' as a mass weapon of the working classes. Also 
called ''anarchists of the deed." 

Force Report. As an essential factor in computing percentages 
of LABOR TURXOYER, this is a statcm^ent of the niimber of persons 
actually working on a given da}' in a given establishment, as shown 
by attendance records. 

Forced Labor. See Native Labor; Peonage; Ixvoluxtary 
Servitude. 

Foremen. See Supervisory Workers. 

Fortbildungsschule. Part-time schools are so called in 
Germany, where they have been more highly developed as a part 

of the public educational system, than in an}' other coimtn^ The 
attendance of children below a certain age limit is compulsory, 
and the instruction is largely along vocational hnes. 

Forty -Eight Hour Week. The demand for a working week 
limited to forty-eight hours usually accompanies the demand for the 
EIGHT-HOUR DAY, as ensuring one day of rest for the worker during 
the week. Sometimes, however, it replaces the demand for the eight- 
hour day, because greater elasticity is possible in arranging the hours 
of work; and the adoption of a hah holiday, or even a whole hohday, 
on Saturday or some other week-day is made feasible by longer work 
periods than eight hours on other days. The principle of the forty- 
eight hour week, in connection with the eight-hour day, was officially 
adopted in the draft conventions of the first General Labor Con- 
ference OF THE League of Nations. 

Forty -Four Hour Week. A working week limited to forty- 
four hotu-s is often -urged as a necessary- item in an}- programme for 
humanizing labor conditions. As a rule, such a working week is 
divided into five eight-hour days, with a four-hour Saturday, and a 
Svmday of rest. Sometimes, however, it is whohy divided among 
five days, vdth full holidays on the sLxth and seventh days. 

Forty -Hour Week. As generally understood, this is a working 
week of five eight-hotir days, with full hoHdaj^s on the remaining 
two days — usually Saturday and Sunday. The forty-hoirr week 
movement has made considerable headwa}' in Australia particularh-. 

Foster Report. A detailed report on "Organized Public 
Service in the [British] Building Industry," prepared by a subcom- 
mittee of the building trades parliament in 19 19. The chairman 

[174] 



of this subcommittee was Thomas Foster. The report deals in a 
thoroughgoing manner with som.e of the most important general 
problems of industry, and has created widespread discussion. (See 
Limitation of Output.) 

Foul Man. See Fair, Unfair. 

Foul Shop. See Fair, Unfair. 

Four-L's. See Loyal Legion of Loggers and Lumbermen 

Four -Shift System. See Six-Hour Day. 

Fourier ism. A socialistic scheme of cooperative ownership, 
production, and distribution, together with a programme of associa- 
tive living, formulated by a French socialist writer, F. C. M. Fourier 
(1772-1837). Fourier's scheme is based on a division of society 
into departments or phalanges, each phalange (consisting of about 
1600 persons) inhabiting a phalanstere, or common building, with a 
certain portion of siurounding land for cultivation. The conflict 
between capitalist and worker and that between producer and con- 
sumer were to be resolved by a merging of the interests of all four 
into that of the individual member of the phalanstere, who became 
at once worker, shareholder in a stock company, and business direc- 
tor of the enterprise. Fourierism is to be distinguished from scien- 
tific SOCIALISM in many important respects. It differs from com- 
munism in that it does not contemplate equality in labor and con- 
sumption. While all definite experiments based on Fourierism 
(several were tried in the United States about the middle of the last 
century) have been unsuccessful, its influence is still felt — particularly 
in the anarchist movement. (See Association ; Utopian Socialism.) 

Fourth Internationale. See International Working Union 
of Socialist Parties. 

Foxing. See Smooting. 

Frame or Frame -Up. See Plant. 

Fraternal Delegates. In labor conventions or congresses, 
these are delegates from foreign labor bodies, or from home organiza- 
tions unaffiliated with the particular body in convention. They 
take part in general discussions, but usually have no vote. 

Free Laborers. In England, this term is commonly used 
by employers and others in designation of those workers who are not 

[17s] 



members of trade unions, and who "pledge themselves to work 
amicably with others whether members of a union or not." They 
are generally known among British unionists by the less euphemistic 
terms, blacklegs and scabs. A large number of these workers 
are affiliated in an organization called the "Free Labor Association." 

Free Speech Fights. With particular reference to the Indus- 
trial Workers of the World, this term refers to what was for 
several years an important part of I. W. W. policy and tactics. 
Indeed, the organization's dramatic "free speech fights" with mu- 
nicipal authorities, particularly those of the Pacific slope, have at- 
tracted quite as much attention as its occasional dramatic strikes. 
A definite strategy seems to have been followed in most of these 
struggles. Whenever the I. W. W. organizers in a particular town 
are arrested for "incendiary utterances," the call goes out to all 
I. W. W. locals in the same region for an invasion by "foot-loose" 
members. They flock into the fight area, are usually jailed whole- 
sale by the local police, and make themselves the "guests" of the 
town in such numbers as to clog the machinery of municipal adminis- 
tration and cause heavy expense to the local tax-payers. Since 19 13 
free speech has been a less important issue with the I. W. W. 

Free Trade Unions. See Gewerkschaften. 

Free Workers' Union of Gennany. See Freie Arbeiter- 
Union Deutschlands. 

Freedom of Contract. In regard to dealings between em- 
ployers and workers, this term denotes "the legal right of e very- 
individual to make such a bargain for the purchase or sale of labor 
as he may think most conducive to his own interest"; or, in the 
familiar phraseology of employers, "the right of the workingman to 
work for whomever he pleases, as many hours a day as he wishes, 
and for whatever wages he is willing to accept." The right to "free- 
dom of contract," as guaranteed by the Constitution, is frequently 
invoked in opposition to all legislative efforts in the United States to 
improve the wages, hours, or conditions of the working class. It is 
also the favorite incantation of opponents of trade unionism, who 
maintain that the doctrine is nullified by such trade union devices as 
collective bargaining and the closed shop. But the essential 
point in the whole matter, as one of the greatest of living jurists has 
pointed out, is the simple fact that "freedom of contract begins 
where there is equality of bargaining power." Without equality, or 
at least approximate equality, of bargaining power, "freedom of 

[176] 



contract" becomes a self-evident absurdity. (See Woman in 
Industry.) 

Freie Arbeiter -Union Deutschlands (Free Workers' Union 
of Germany). The title, adopted in December, 19 19, of the central 
organization of German syndicalist associations, representing a com- 
bined membership on the date above mentioned of 110,000. As this 
total indicates, syndical sm plays but a small part in the German 
labor movement. Its adherents are commonly known as "localists." 
(See Gewerkschaften.) 

Freie Gewerkschaften (Free Trade Unions). See Gewerk- 
schaften. 

French Conciliation and Arbitration Law. A measure, 
enacted in 1892, which provides that either party to a labor dispute 
may apply to the juge de paix of the canton, who informs the other 
party of the application. If they concur within three days, a joint 
committee of conciliation is formed of not more than five repre- 
sentatives of each party, which meets in the presence of the juge de 
paix, who, however, has no vote. If no agreement results the parties 
are invited to appoint arbitrators. If such arbitrators are appointed 
and cannot agree on an umpire, the president of the civil tribunal 
appoints an timpire. In the case of an actual strike, in the absence 
of an application from either party it is the duty of the juge de paix 
to invite the parties to proceed to conciliation or arbitration. The 
results of the action of the juge de paix and of the conciliation com- 
mittee are placarded by the mayors of the communes affected. The 
law leaves the parties entirely free to accept or reject the services of 
the juge de paix. 

French Economic Council of Labor. See Conseil Econo- 
MiQUE DU Travail. 

French Federation of Christian Workers. See French 
Labor Movement. 

French General Confederation of Labor. See CoNPfiDfiR- 

ATION GfiNfiRALE DU TrAVAIL. 

French Labor Movement. The growth of trade unionism 
is comparatively recent in France, for while freedom of association 
was recognized by ancient French law, it was, except for short 
intervals, denied to French workmen up to the year i860. From that 
time to 1884 it was tolerated and there was a slow growth in work- 

[177] 



men's societies up to 1884, when a law was passed according freedom 
of association to both employers and workers; but it v/as not until 
1 90 1 that these rights were fully granted. Organization has always 
been more complete among employers than among the workers, 
though since 19 14 membership in employees' federations has been 
increasing rapidly, that of the Confederation Generale du 
Travail having grown from about 500,000 in 19 14 to about 1,500,000 
in 1920. The national federations d'industrie and national 
SYNDicATS and the local bourses du travail which make up the 
C. G. T. are mainly composed of local syndicats rouges (red unions), 
devoted largely to the class struggle and the abolition of the wage 
system. Recent afhliations to the C. G. T. are the Federations of 
Civil Servants, which include the Postal Federation, the Federation 
of Officeholders, and the Federated Union of State Employees. 
An organization with aims somewhat similar to those of the C. G. T. 
is the recently-formed am.algamation of four organizations of agri- 
cultural workers, called the National Federation of Agricultural 
Laborers. Not all of the workers' organizations in France are 
founded on the principle of the class struggle, however. There are 
the so-called syndicats jaunes (yellow unions), founded in 1900 and 
working to better the conditions of the workmen by law and uphold- 
ing the entente between employees and employers ; the recently 
formed Confederation Nationale du Travail, which has approximately 
100,000 adhe:^ents, largely ex-soldiefs, and which stands for agree- 
ment between "capital" and "labor" and against the struggle of 
the classes; and the Federation of Christian Workers, with a member- 
ship of 140,000, which stands for the defense of the occupational 
interests of its members. Each branch of the French labor move- 
ment is independent or autonomous; that is, there is no stable tie 
connecting the trade union, socialist, and cooperative groups, and 
they do not meet except in special definite cases to plan their policy ; 
so that it is seldom that the members of the Socialist Party are called 
upon to act as propagandists of trade unionism or the cooperative 
movement. On the other hand, prominent members of the Socialist 
Party have a large part in determining the policy of the C. G. T. 
through their membership in that organization. In March, 1920, 
the law of 1884 in regard to trade unions was amended to extend 
the civil rights of unions. The additional rights granted include the 
ability to acquire property, the guaranty of the protection of the 
law in cases of direct or indirect injury to the collective interests 
of the trade they represent, protection of the marque syndical 
(union label), rightto form cooperative buying and selling organiza- 

,[178] 



tions for their members, and protection from seizure of property 
essential to the business of the unions. The general tendency in 
the French labor movement, as represented by the dominant labor 
group the C. G. T., and by the labor leaders within the Socialist 
Party seem to be to subordinate ordinary working-c ass or 
trade union aims to the furtherance of extreme revolutionary ideas. 
The communistic ideas of the working people had taken root before 
the war, and had been most strongly evidenced in the elections of 
1 9 14. The union of the labor leaders with the other parties during 
the war in the Union Sacree for the common defense of the country 
silenced for a time the aspirations for control by the workers. The^ 
war ended, and the need for united action being past, the old differ- 
ences reasserted themselves, augmented by the economic difficulties 
which were a result of the war and by the effects of the Russian 
revolution. But for the present at least, the revolutionary tendencies 
within the labor movement seem well under the control of the govern- 
ment, which is backed not only by a powerful middle class but by 
a considerable non-revolutionary minority among the workers. (See 
CoNSEiL EcoNOMiQUE Du Travail; Eight-Hour Day in France; 
Associations Ouvrieres de Production; Bureaux Paritaires; 
French Conciliation and Arbitration Law; Conseils de Prud'- 
HOMMEs; Mutualite; Reformist; Societes Compagnonniques; 
Chasse aux Renard; Code du 'Travail et de la Prevoyance 
Travail; Corporatisme ; Greve aux Bras Croises.) • 

French National Federation of Agricultural Laborers. 
See French Labor Movement. 

French National Vocational Schools. See Ecoles Nat- 
ionales Professionales. 

French Superior Council of Labor. See Conseil Superieur 
du Travail. 

French Trade Union Congress. See Confederation Gen- 
erale du Travail. 

French Working -Men's Associations of Production. See 

Associations Ouvrieres de Production. 

Friendly Benefits. See Benefits. 

Friendly Societies. Voluntary mutual thrift and insurance 
associations, formed mainly among the manual wage-earning class. 
Such associations have an immense combined membership in Great 

[ 179 1 



Britain, where some of them date back to the 17th century. Their 
principal function is to provide financial assistance to members 
during illness, or to their families in case of death. Similar forms of 
organization in the United States are usually known as benevolent 
or benefit societies. (See National Insurance Act.) 

Friendly Unionism. See Uplift Unionism. 

Fringe of Unemployed. The excess in the supply of avail- 
able worj^ers over the demand, for the country as a whole or for any 
particular locality, at any given time. Though varying in size and 
shifting in character, this "fringe of unemployed" (or "margin of 
idleness," as it is sometimes called) is an integral feature of modem 
industrialism. (See Labor Surplus; Reserve of Labor.) 

Fruit Tramp. A nickname commonly applied in the Western 
states to a "casual" worker (often a member of the I. W. W.) who 
goes about from place to place finding short spells of employment 
in fruit-picking operations. 

. Full -Crew Laws. Owing to the practice of railroads in con- 
tinually making trains longer and heavier, without proportionate 
increase in the size of the crews, about half the states of this country- 
have enacted legislation requiring train crews to consist of a specified 
number of men for trains of specified length. 

Full Pay. In the most usual sense, individual wages from 
which no deduction has been made for time when the worker was 
idle through no fault of his own. 

Full Time. The normal number of working hours per day or 
week established by custom, by collective bargaining, or by law 
for a particular industry, occupation, or indust ial plant — the num- 
ber of hours the employee regularly expects to work and the employer 
expects him to work. (See Short Time; Overtime.) 

Full Worker. One who has served his apprenticeship, and is 
entitled to regular journeyman wages, etc., in his trade. 

Functional Democracy. Advocates of guild socialism hold 
that all members of a community should be organized according to 
their individual functions in society. As producers they should be 
members of the "national guild" of their particular trades, these 
"national guilds" to be controlled by a central "council of guilds" 
or guild congress. As consumers, they should be members of the 
political State, whose machinery should be so modified as not only 

f 180] 



to look after their interests as consiimers but to perform other social 
functions as well. The consumers as a body should decide what and 
how much is to be produced; the producers, how and under what 
conditions production is to be carried on. It should be the joint 
function of both bodies to determine prices and distribution of in- 
come. Because of this emphasis upon ''organization by function," 
guild socialism is sometimes referred to as "functional democracy." 

Functional Foremanship. In any shop system of scientific 
MANAGEMENT, the worker's activity is as far as possible confined 
strictly to actual handling of the machine or tool, and of the ma- 
terial only as far as necessary to apply the tool to it. All other work 
is the function of management. In accordance with this idea, the 
Taylor system involves a method known as ** functional foreman- 
ship," by which "such details of administration as determination of 
the sequence of operations, machines, tools, and methods to be used, 
time to be taken, relative importance of orders, recording of opera- 
tions, instruction of workmen, moving of materials, and mainte- 
nance of equipment and tools, are the special functions of separate 
foremen, each of whom is responsible for the proper handling of 
his detail with reference to a varying number of men, and all of 
whom bring to bear their specialized knowledge on each man." 
This system of functional foremanship is also sometimes called 
* ' divided foremanship * ' and * ' functional management . ' ' (See Single 
Foremanship.) 

Functional Management. See Functional Foremanship. 

Funeral Benefits. See Death Benefits. 
13 



G. F. T. U. See General Federation of Trade Unions. 

Gaffer. A slang term used by British workmen in designa- 
tion of a foreman or gang boss. 

Gain Sharing. As evolved and named by Henry R. Towne, 
president of the Yale and Towne Manufacturing Company, this is 
often described as the application of profit sharing to the separate 
departments of a business instead of to the business as a whole, the 
plan being based upon demonstrable gains in the efficiency of depart- 
ments as shown by careful accounting. In reality, however, it be- 
longs to those related forms of remuneration in addition to wages 
which depend upon some other factor than net profits. Under the 
Towne system, the amount of the additional remuneration is propor- 
tionate to the "gain," or saving in the cost of production, irrespective 
of the rate of profit realized by the employer. Any plan of wage 
pa^Tnent under the premium bonus system is sometimes called 
"gain sharing." 

Gang Boss. A petty foreman, usually one in charge of a small 
group of workers engaged at a single specialized task. (See Gaffer; 
Charge-Hand.) 

Gang Piece Work. See Collective Piece Work. 

Gantt System. This term is sometimes applied to a general 
modification of the Taylor system of scientific management, 
devised by H. L. Gantt, one of Taylor's associates; sometimes it is 
used with specific reference to the method of wage payment that is 
a part of the Gantt plan. Under this system, as described by Mr. 
Gantt, "each man has his work assigned to him in the form of a 
TASK to be done, by a prescribed method, with definite appliances, 
and to be completed within a certain time. The task is based on a 
detailed investigation by a trained expert of the best method of 
doing the work; and the task-setter, or his assistant, acts as an 

[182] 



instructor to teach the workmen to do the work in the manner and 
time specified. If the work is done within the time allowed by the 
expert, and is up to the standard for quality, the workman receives 
extra compensation (usually 20 to 50 per cent of the time allov/ed) 
in addition to his day's pay. If it is not done in the time set, or is 
not up to the standard for quality, the workman receives his day's 
pay only. The system is thus in effect a combination of the day- 
rate and PIECE WORK system^s." Under the Gantt system in general, 
the existing form of organization in an industrial plant is left more 
nearly intact than under the Taylor system. As a rule, also, the 
TIME AND MOTION STUDIES are not so minute, and the percentage of 
allowance for such factors as interference, fatigue, and inertia is 
more liberal, thus making it easier for the worker to earn the bonus 
earlier and even to go under the bonus time. The gang boss as a 
rule receives a bonus for each worker who fulfills his task satisfac- 
torily, and a double bonus when all the workers under his super- 
vision are successful. The Gantt plan of wage payment is often called 
the "task and bonus system," but this name could be applied with 
equal accuracy to some of the other methods of wage payment 
under scientific management. 

Garnishment of Wages. The process of requiring an em- 
ployer, by court order, to withhold the payment of wages due an 
employee pending the determination of a legal claim against the 
employee. Also called ** trusteeing of wages." (See Wage Exemp- 
tion.) 

Garret Master or Garret Boss. See Little Master. 

Garten Foundation Report. A detailed memorandum on 
the industrial situation in Great Britain as affected by the first 
two years of war, published in 19 16 by the Garton Foundation, 
London, of which Arthur Balfoiu-, Viscount Esher, and Sir Richard 
Garton are trustees. To allay industrial unrest, the Report 
proposed the replacing of the idea of private advantage by that of 
public service, through a system of joint committees or councils 
leading up through factory and district representation to a national 
industrial council for each major industry. The Whitley plan 
is largely based on the recommendations of this report. 

Gemeinsamerbetriebsrat (Joint Works Council). See Ger- 
man Works Councils Law. 

General Council, Trades Union Congress. See Trades 
Union Congress. 

[ 183 ] 



General Executive Board. As found in most of the larger 
national and international American trade unions, this is a 
central governing body having more or less control over the admin- 
istrative and judicial affairs of the organization. The chief function 
of the general executive board is to serve as a check on the power of 
the NATIONAL OFFICERS. In most cases, the executive board levies 
assessments appoints temporary officers to fill vacancies, and per- 
forms other duties which were vested in the president in the early 
days of the older organizations. "The duty of declaring strikes, 
which none of the older organizations ventured to entrust to the 
president, has been delegated to the executive board by practically 
all unions save the few which submit this question to popular vote. 
Perhaps the most important function of the board is to bring to trial 
and remove officers for misdemeanors and neglect of duty, since con- 
trol over officers depends so largely upon the ability of the board to 
exercise this power." As a rule, union members in each section of 
the country and in each branch of the trade demand representation 
on the board. Its personnel being thus scattered about the coimtry, 
meetings of the board are held infrequently, because of the expense 
of bringing together the members ; and much of its business is trans- 
acted by mail or telegraph. (See Trade Union Government — 
National.) 

General Federation of- Trade Unions. A British organiza- 
tion established in 1899 mainly as a mutual insurance agency against 
the heavy financial burdens to which trade unions are subject in 
the distribution of strike pay. By means of a small annual con- 
tribution from a large aggregate membership, the Federation has 
been able to build up a large reserve fund, upon which the affiliated 
unions may draw diuing a trade dispute. Its governing body is a 
General Council consisting of delegates appointed by affiliated or- 
ganizations in proportion to their numbers. The General Cotmcil 
chooses each year a Management Committee of fifteen, who together 
with the Secretary, elected at the annual meeting, form the execu- 
tive of the Federation. In 1919 the Federation included 141 affil- 
iated imions, with a constituent membership of 1,215,107. Most 
of the affiliated unions are also affiliated with the Trades Union 
Congress. 

General Hazard of the Industry. See Trade Risk Prin- 
ciple. 

General Labor Conference of the League of Nations. 

The clauses of the Treaty of Versailles creating an International 

[184] 



Labor Organization under the League of Nations provide that 
this organization shall consist of (i) a General Conference of Repre- 
sentatives of Members of the League, and (2) an International 
Labor Office. It is the function of the General Conference to 
frame drafts of conventions or recommendations in regard to labor 
matters, which shall later be submitted to the national legislative 
bodies of the constituent members of the League, for adoption or 
rejection. The General Conference "shall be composed of four 
representatives of each of the members, of whom two shall be govern- 
ment delegates and the two others shall be delegates representing 
respectively the employers and the workpeople of the members." 
Advisers are allowed to accompany delegates, and in questions 
affecting women one adviser in the delegation "should be a woman." 
The delegates vote individually. Meetings of the Conference must 
be held at least once a year at the seat of the League of Nations 
(Geneva), or elsewhere as may be decided. The first meeting was 
convened at Washington, D. C, on October 29, 19 19, and adjourned 
a month later. Delegates representing labor and employer groups 
of all countries included in the League were in attendance. The 
Conference perfected its permanent machinery, appointed a Director 
General of the International Labor Office, and adopted six conventions 
and six recommendations for proposed labor legislation. The con- 
ventions were as follows: (i) Establishment of an eight-hour day 
and a forty-eight hour week; (2) establishment of government 
employment agencies and abolition of private agencies; (3) pro- 
hibition of NIGHT WORK for womcn except in undertakings where 
only members of the family are employed; (4) prohibition of children 
under fourteen years of age from industrial work; (5) prohibition of 
young persons, male or female, from working at night; and (6) 
indemnification of wage-earning mothers at time of childbirth. 
The six recommendations dealt with the following: (i) Remedies 
for unemployment; (2) reciprocity in the treatment of foreign work- 
ers; (3) prevention of anthrax; (4) protection of women and children 
against lead poisoning; (5) government health services; (6) prohibi- 
tion of the use of white phosphorus in the manufacture of matches. 
The second meeting of the Conference opened at Genoa, Italy, on 
June 15, 1920, and concluded its sessions on July 10. The agenda re- 
lated solely to the welfare and protection of seamen; and in addition 
to the official delegates, a number of representatives of shipowners 
and of seamen's organizations sat in the Conference as non-official 
delegates. Several draft conventions in regard to seafaring labor 
were adopted. The agenda for the third Conference, to meet at 

[185] 



Geneva in the autumn of 1921, has to do mainly with agricultural 
labor and industrial disease. (See International Association 
FOR Labor Legislation.) 

General Labor Unions. In England, organizations made up 
in largest part of the following types or classes of workers: (i) Un- 
skilled workers in industries in which specialized craft unions of 
skilled workers exist, e.g., engineering laborers, builders' laborers, 
etc. ; (2) workers of all sorts in industries or trades for which no effec- 
tive special organizations exist, e.g., laundry workers, chemical 
workers, brewery workers, etc.; (3) workers in trades or industries 
for which, although special organizations exist, these special organi- 
zations do not cover the whole country, or have not been able to 
establish their claim to organize all the workers employed in a par- 
ticular trade or industry, e.g., dockers, vehicle workers, etc. These 
unions, many of which are large and powerful national organizations, 
are for the most part federated in the National Federation op 
General Workers. 

General Laborers' National Council. See National Feder- 
ation OF General Workers. 

General Members. See Members at Large. 

General Secretary. The principal administrative officer of 
a British national trade union is so called. He ife usually a full-time 
salaried official, although in some of the smaller unions he works at 
his trade and devotes only his spare time to the union's business. 
The general secretary is, as a rule, elected annually by popular vote. 
As a matter of fact, however, the tendency is to reelect the same 
man each year; and, as in the case of the other national officials, his 
tenure of office is practically permanent as long as he gives satisfac- 
tion. In some of the single-branch unions the general secretary, 
besides handling all the routine business, carries on negotiations 
with employers and controls general policy as well. (See British 
Trade Union Organization.) 

General Strike. Few terms in the labor movement possess 
so varied and elastic a meaning as this. It may refer merely to an 
organized stoppage of work by all the workers in a single community, 
or by all the workers in a single industry in a community; at the 
other extreme, it may involve all or practically all the workers of 
an entire country, or all the workers in a single national industry. 
When confined to a single community or a single industry (sometimes 

f 186] 



called the ** partial general strike"), its aims are nearly always 
economic — the gaining of some definite concession from the employ- 
ers. When employed upon a national scale by workers in all indus- 
tries, it is usually political in character — as in the general strike 
in Germany to defeat the Kapp coup d'etat early in 1920, or in the 
action of the Danish workers against the unconstitutional dissolution 
of the Cabinet by the King in the same year. What is variously 
known as the "social general strike," the "revolutionary general 
strike," and the "expropriatory general strike" — that is to say, 
a general strike on a national or international scale, which aims 
at the complete overthrow and expropriation of capitalistic society, 
and the substitution of a new order — is as yet nothing more than 
a theory, the central item in the philosophy of syndicalism. Ac- 
cording to a French writer, Paul Delesalle, it means "the complete 
and simultaneous stoppage of production, which must render im- 
possible the normal functioning of capitalist society. The workers, 
conscious at last of their force and their power, pour forth, with 
one accord, from factory and workshop and yard, only to return 
there at length to carry on production for their own profit, working 
no longer for a master or a capitalist trust, but for themselves, for 
the profit of the whole community." The French use the term 
"generalized strike" in contradistinction to the "social" or "revo- 
lutionary" general strike. Any form of general strike is often re- 
ferred to as a "mass strike." (See Hartal.) 

General Wages. See Wages. 

General Workers. In British industry, a common designation 
for the numerous nondescript workers (usually imskilled or semi- 
skilled) who are either not eligible to or are not sought after by the 
national craft unions. These workers are strongly organized in 
several national societies known as general labor unions, which 
are federated in the National Federation of General Workers. 

Generalized Strike. See General Strike. 

Generalkommission der Gewerkschaften (General Com- 
mission of Trade Unions). See Allgemeiner Deutscher Gewerk- 
schaftsbund; Gewerkschaften. 

Geneva Internationale. See Internationale. 

Geographical Jurisdiction. See Jurisdiction. 

German General Trade Union Federation. See Allge- 
meiner Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund. 

[187] 



German General Workers* Union, See Allgemeine Ar- 
beiter-Union. 

German National Economic Council. See Reichswirt- 

SCHAFTSRAT. 

German National Labor Administration. There are two 
main executive departments devoted to labor affairs in the central 
government of the new German Republic. These are the National 
Ministry of Labor and the National Ministry of Economics. In 
demarcation of their respective functions, the following official 
statement has been issued: "All questions of a socio-political char- 
acter relating to the labor contract will be dealt with by the Ministry 
of Labor; in particular, unemployment relief, compulsory engage- 
ment of workers, share of workers in business management and 
Works Councils. The Ministry of Economics, on the other hand, 
deals with labor questions only in so far as they relate to the continu- 
ation and reconstruction of the processes of production and its tech- 
nique. In this connection the cooperative societies, the trade imions, 
joint industrial leagues, and similar organizations will be dealt 
with in the National Ministry of Economics." 

German Spartacus League. See Spartacans. 

German Trade Union Congress. See Allgemeiner Deut- 

SCHER GeWERKSCHAFTSBUND. 

German Trade Union Organization. As a typical example 
of German trade union organization, Mr. C. M. Lloyd (writing 
in 19 14) thus describes the Metalworkers' Union, the largest of the 
German ''free" (Social Democratic) national unions or Zentral- 
verbande, with more than a million members : ' ' The Metalworkers* 
Union comprises 451 branches, grouped in eleven Districts. The 
government is in the hands of a supreme executive committee of paid 
officials, elected triennially by delegates from the Districts. The 
authority of this national executive is very substantial, including, 
as it does, the power to forbid a strike in any District (except a 
'defensive' strike: there its sanction is not required, though it is, 
as a matter of course, consulted before hostilities are begim), the 
right to reject at its discretion even duly elected candidates for the 
District Executives, and the expenditure of something like seventy- 
five or eighty per cent of the ordinary contributions of the members, 
which are paid direct into its hands, with a final voice even in the 
disbursement of the balance that remains in the local exchequer. 

[188I 



The organization of the District is elaborate. There are two sub- 
divisions — the one geographical, into wards, the other professional, 
into 'craft' groups or branches — fitters, moulders, coppersmiths, 
brassworkers, boilermakers, machinists, crane drivers, scientific 
instrument makers and so on. Both the ward and the group have 
their committees, as well as a staff of shop-stewards, each one 
responsible for keeping the members in his particular works or shop 
in touch with the officials and with the Union as a whole. The 
central control of the District is in the hands of permanent officials 
(elected by the general meeting), who, with the chairman of the ward 
and group committees, form the Executive Council. This Council 
meets weekly, receives reports from each ward and group, and 
issues its own decisions and proposals to be laid before the shop- 
stewards and the ward and group meetings. Once a quarter a general 
meeting is held, which — in the larger districts at least, like Berlin — 
is not attended by all the members, but by the various officials, 
the ward and group committee-men, and the shop-stewards of the 
District. In exceptional cases, on matters of supreme importance, 
a referendum may be taken. . . . Here, then, is a vast organization, 
combining into one society literally dozens of different trades, from 
metalworkers to laborers, from farriers to boilermakers, which yet 
works with marvellous smoothness, and has been enormously suc- 
cessful in improving the conditions of its members." (See Material 
Trade Union.) 

German Works Councils Law (Betriebsrdtegesetz). The 
constitution of the new German Republic, adopted July, 19 19, 
contains tentative provisions for an elaborate system of works 
COUNCILS. According to this system, all manual wage-earners and 
salaried employees will eventually be represented in three main forms 
of works council organization, as follows: (i) Local works councils, 
or Betriebsarbeiterrdte, organized for each individual factory or 
establishment; (2) district workers' councils, or Bezirksarbeiter- 
rdte, organized for each economic area; and (3) a national workers' 
council, or Reichsarbeiterrat. As yet, the district and national forms 
of organization have not come into existence. The remaining form 
was definitely created in a measure enacted in January, 1920, by the 
National Assembly. All industrial or commercial establishments, 
of whatever character, employing more than five workers come 
within the provisions of the Works Councils Law. Agricultural 
workers, government employees, and home workers are also included. 
In each establishment employing at least twenty workers a works 

[ 189 1 



council (Betriebsarbeiterrat or, in the usual shortened form, Betrieb- 
srat) is to be organized. In establishments employing less than twenty 
but at least five workers, the functions of a works council will be per- 
formed by a Betriebsobmann, a works steward elected by the work- 
ers. In addition to the general works council there are to be formed 
in each of the larger establishments separate group councils (Grup- 
penrdte) consisting of a manual workers' council (Arbeiterrat) and 
a non-manual or salaried employees' council (Angestelltenrat) , repre- 
senting the special economic interests of each of these two groups. 
The law also provides for a w^orks assembly (Betriebsversa7nmlung), 
composed of all the m^anual and non-manual workers of an establish- ^ 
ment, which really stands in authority above the works council. 
In the case of several similar or economically interdependent estab- 
lishments owned by the same firm, a central works council {Gesamt- 
betriebsrat) may be formed in addition to the individual works 
councils; or a joint works council (Gemeinsamerbetriebsrat) may be 
formed to take the place of the individual works councils. The 
members of a works council, varying from three to thirty, are elected 
by vote of all the workers in an establishment. They may be either 
men or women. ''Although the works council law came into being 
in its present form against the will of the majority of all organized 
workers, the creation of works councils must be considered as an 
economic gain of labor. To be sure, the law did not recognize the 
right of the workers' and salaried employees' representatives to a 
voice in the management of the establishment. It opened, however, 
the way toward giving these representatives an insight into the man- 
agement of the establishment and thus placed them legally in a 
position to support the policy of the management in bringing about 
the highest efficiency and the greatest possible econom}^ in the oper- 
ation of the plant. The law, moreover, gives the works council a 
deciding vote in all questions relating to labor conditions, especially 
in the formulating of shop regulations, a voice in the discharge of 
workmen, and a voice in the suspension of work to the extent that 
general lines of conduct governing the procedure of suspension are 
to be agreed upon between the works council and the employer." 
(See Reichswirtscpiaftsrat.) 

Gesamtbetriebsrat (Central Works Council). See German 
Works Councils Law. 

Gewerbegerichten. German industrial courts which, like 
the French and Belgian Conseils de Prud'hommes and the Italian 
Probi-Viri, have jurisdiction in cases arising out of existing labor 

[ 190] 



contracts. In addition, however, they are empowered under certain 
conditions to offer their services to mediate between the parties to 
an ordinary labor dispute. 

Gewerbeordnung. The general governmental labor code of 
Germany, regulating the safety, health, morality, etc., of workers, 
the hours of women and children, the conduct of dangerous trades, 

the TRUCK SYSTEM, CtC. 

Gewerkschaften or Freie Gewerkschaften. The socialist 
(Social Democratic) or "free" trade unions of Germany, forming 
by far the largest and most effective section of German trade unionism, 
are so called. \They began to appear in the sixties of the last century, 
and were organized in most cases by members of the Social Demo- 
cratic Party. In 1878 the German government passed an anti- 
socialist law which practically destroyed all effective trade com- 
bination. Between 1878 and 1888, 108 trade unions were dissolved 
by the authorities. Those that kept together were compelled to 
limit their activities to the provision of friendly society benefits. 
But even under the iron rule of the anti-socialist law, cautious and 
disguised attempts were made to carry on trade union organization. 
A number of bodies, the real objects of which were concealed under 
the title of "friendly society," were formed, so that when the anti- 
socialist law lapsed in 1890 there were fifty-eight Gewerkschaften 
in existence, with a membership of 301,500. The regained freedom 
was used to bring these bodies into closer relation, and a conference 
was held at Berlin, which created a central organization — the General- 
kommission der Gewerkschaften, superseded in 19 19 by the All- 
GEMEiNER Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund. Sincc this date Con- 
gresses have been held at intervals, at which important methods 
affecting the affiliated unions, which are now generally known as 
Zentralverbande (centralized unions), are discussed and decided. 
One of the most important questions decided by the first Congress 
was with regard to the form the trade union organization should 
take. A number of the Gewerkschaften were anxious to retain local 
autonomy, with a more or less loose form of national confederation. 
The majority, however, stood for strict national centralization, and 
on this being carried the supporters of localized methods separated 
from the main body. The latter declared at first that they consid- 
ered themselves to be a part of the Social Democratic movement, 
thus limiting their membership to declared socialists. Later they 
developed a type of syndicalist doctrine known as Anarcho-Sozialis- 
mus, which caused the Social Democratic Party to repudiate them. 

[191] 



The majority of the localized organizations then broke away and 
joined the centralized bodies, and the minority have now no influence 
in the German trade union world. The total membership of the 
Gewerkschaften increased from less than three millions in 191 8 to 
nearly eight and a half millions in 1920. Of this latter number 
some two millions are women workers. (See Gewerkschaftskar- 
telle; Arbeitersekretariat; Gewerkschafthauser.) 

Gewerkschafthauser. In Germany the local and district 
organizations of Gewerkschaften ("free" or Social Democratic 
unions) usually combine for the provision of suitable offices and 
meeting places. In large towns, and even in some small ones, the 
unions have erected splendid buildings (Gewerkschafthauser), in 
which their bureaus are located. There were seventy buildings of 
this kind in Germany just before the war. In some cases the Social 
Democratic political organizations cooperate for this purpose, and 
have their headquarters under the same roof. The Gewerkschafthaus 
in Berlin cost over $500,000, and contains a spacious restaurant, 
large and small halls, a lodging house for travelling trade unionists, 
and baths, as well as the numerous offices of the trade unions of the 
capital and those of the Allgemeiner Deutscher Gewerkschafts- 

BUND. 

Gewerkschaftskartelle. The local federations of Gewerk- 
schaften ("free" or Social Democratic trade unions) are so called 
in Germany. They are similar, in general, to the British trades 
COUNCILS, their principal task being the strengthening and expansion 
of trade tmionism in their respective areas. In addition, many of 
them maintain workers' secretariats, legal information bureaus, 
libraries and other educational facilities, workmen's lodging houses, 
etc. They also make arrangements for the election of workmen's 
representatives to various public bodies. (See Arbeitersekre- 
tariat; Gewerkschafthauser.) 

Gewerkschaftskonunission Deutschosterreichs (Austrian 
Central Trade Union Commission). An executive board or national 
commission which acts for the entire body of Social Democratic 
UNIONS (Gewerkschaften) in Austria, representing an affiliated 
membership of 772,146 at the end of 1919 — as against only about 
263,000 in 1 9 18. This remarkable increase is in part due to the 
affiliation of numerous organizations of non-industrial wage-workers, 
such as bank employees, domestic serv^ants, policemen, postal and 
telegraph employees, hospital nurses, etc. Through the affiliation 

[192] 



of these organizations the Gewerkschaftskommission has become the 
official representative not only of the industrial workers of Austria 
but of Austria's entire wage-earning population — with the excep- 
tion of a small minority organized in the Christian and yellow 
UNIONS. It works in close cooperation with the Austrian Social 
Democratic Labor Party {Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei in 
Deutschosterreich), organized in 1888, which represents the political 
interests of the great majority of Austrian workers, who are for the 
most part moderate socialists — although a considerable left-wing 
or communist movement has lately developed. As in Germany, the 
Austrian trade union movement is strongly centralized, the affili- 
ated membership represented by the Gewerkschaftskommission 
being concentrated at the end of 19 19 in fifty-five national unions. 

Gewerkschaftsschule. See Working-Class Education. 

Gewerkvereine or Hirsch-Duncker Unions. German labor 
organizations of a non-political and anti-socialist character. The 
Hirsch-Duncker Gewerkvereine came into being in 1868, at about 
the same time as the Gewerkschaften, and were the creation of 
prominent Manchester School liberals of that period, the names of 
two of whom form the title of the organizations. The Gewerkvereine 
are opposed to State interference, and in favor of free competition 
and self-help. They are based on the assumption that there is no 
fundamental antagonism between the capitalist and the worker, 
and they aim at settling all differences between the two by purely 
peaceful means. Formerly it was the custom to take a pledge from 
the members that they would have no relations with the Social 
Democrats, but this has now been dropped. During the era of the 
German anti-socialist law (18 78-1 890) they were undisturbed by 
the police, owing to their harmless character, and in consequence 
they grew fairly rapidly. At the end of 19 19 they were reported to 
have 190,000 members, distributed among nineteen affiliated groups. 

Ghent System. A plan, originated by the Belgian city of 
Ghent in 1900, under which trade unions providing out-of-work 
benefits to their members receive a subsidy from the municipality, 
province, or State, the amoimt of the subsidy being proportioned 
to the trade union benefit, varying from ssH to 100 per cent. The 
Ghent system, with various more or less important modifications, 
has been adopted in many communities throughout Europe. 

Gilbreth's Three -Position Plan. See Three-Position Plan. 
Gild. See Guild. 

[193] 



Gild Socialism. See Guild Socialism. 

Ginny, An Italian laborer in the United States is commonly 
so nicknamed; although the term is often applied to any European 
laborer in this country. It is an obvious corruption of ''guinea." 
(See Dago; Wop.) 

Go Canny. See Ca' Canny. 

Go Easy System. See Ca' Canny. 

Go Slow Strike. See Striking on the Job. 

Godin Familistere. See Familistere. 

Golden Scabs. A term used during the American railway 
strikes of 1920 in designation of certain wealthy commuters, college 
students, and others, who acted as volunteer firemen and switchmen, 
taking the places of men out on strike. (See White Collar Scabs.) 

Good from Oven. In the British pottery industry, where the 
piece work basis prevails, workers are paid only for ware that comes 
"good from oven" — that is, ware that does not break in firing. 
Disputes over breakage under this custom are frequent and sometimes 
serious. 

Governing Branch. Under the form of government at one 
time common among British national trade unions, a certain town 
was chosen as the headquarters of the organization; then the local 
BRANCH or branches of the national union in this town selected cer- 
tain of their members to constitute the general board of manage- 
ment. A paid official, known as the secretary or secretary-treasurer, 
was elected by vote of all the members of the national union. This 
officer had merely routine secretarial and financial duties. The 
board met weekly or oftener, and transacted much business that is 
now commonly performed by salaried officials. Through periodical 
removals of the seat of government, the participation of all members 
was secured, though of course not continuously. The "governing 
branch" system, now largely obsolete, has been adopted, either 
exactly or with modifications, by a few American national unions. 

Government by Injunction. Owing to the frequency with 
which the injunction is resorted to as an anti-labor weapon and 
the wide scope of its asstimed powers, American workers often speak 
ironically of our governmental system as "government by injunc- 
tion." 

[ 194] 



Government Ownership. See Nationalization. 

Grading System. This term usually refers to the plan, 
sometimes found in unorganized trades, under which workers at a 
specific occupation are classified into various grades, according to 
the degree of individual skill possessed, with different rates of time 
WORK wages for the different grades. Practically all trade unions 
are strongly opposed to the grading system. "It might seem to be 
possible for the union itself to fix grades of ability, with corresponding 
differences of wages, to which it might assign its several members; 
but the universal voice of the union world declares this to be imprac- 
ticable. Such grading could not be effected without jealousies and 
heartburnings. In a purely voluntary and democratic organization, 
whose strength depends upon the loyalty of its members, it would 
not be safe to introduce a policy so heavy with causes of discord. 
On the other hand, to permit members to be assigned to different 
grades by the employers would be to revert to the individual bargain ; 
and the tendency would be to reduce the greater part of the members 
to the lowest grade." (See Incremental Scale; Wage Differ- 
ential; Rating Scale.) 

Grand Division or Grand International Division. See 
Division. 

Grand Lodge. See Lodge. 

Grand National. One of the most interesting experiments 
in the early British labor movement was the establishment in 1834 
of the ''Grand National Consolidated Trades Union," under the 
leadership of Robert Owen — socialist, factory reformer, and educa- 
tionist. It was, in effect, a form of syndicalism or One Big Union 
(although organized long before those terms were ever heard of), 
which aimed at including all the manual workers in every trade in 
the country, with the various trades organized in associations or 
parochial lodges, and centrally united through delegates to a ''Grand 
National Council." Each trade union or "company" was to be 
an independent unit, controlling its own industry throughout the 
country, excluding commercial competition and destined finally 
to supersede the State as well as the private capitalist. Within a 
few weeks the organization had enrolled between half a million and 
a million workers; but internal dissensions, employers' lockouts, and 
government prosecution combined to bring it to a speedy collapse. 

Grass Hands. See Grass Work. 

[195] 



Grass Work. A common nickname in England for "casual" 
or irregular employment — that which occupies the worker for part 
of the day or the week only. Those workers who depend upon 
"grass work" are commonty known as "grassers" or "grass hands." 
They are usually extra or relief workers, who "fill in" during rush 
hours or other special contingencies. The use of "grass" in this 
sense is probably derived from the phrase, "turned out to grass," 
as applied to horses that spend most of their time in the pasture. 
(See ON-AND-OfiE System.) 

Grassers. See Grass Work. 

Grassing. See Smooting. 

Greaser. A term of contempt applied in some parts of the 
United States to a native Mexican, particularly of the common 
laboring class. 

Great Industry. The present international industrial organi- 
zation for production and exchange is frequently so called by modem 
economists, in contrast with the relatively narrow and local conditions 
under which industry was formerly carried on. A world-wide inter- 
dependence for raw materials and finished products is the chief 
characteristic of the Great Industry. 

Greater Unionism. See Industrial Unionism. 

Greek General Confederation of Labor. Founded at a Pan- 
Hellenic Labor Congress in 1918, with 75,000 members. Owing to 
government persecution, including the deportation of its executive, 
the membership had fallen to 60,000 in 1920. In general, trade 
unionism in Greece is of very recent development and comparatively 
small proportions. 

Green. In accordance with the popular tendency to associate 
political and economic creeds with specific colors, "green" is generally 
used in connection with Eiu-opean peasant affairs and interests, the 
peasants as a rule being neither "red" nor "white" — although the 
more well-to-do (particularly the peasant proprietors) incline toward 
the latter. Thus, there have been reports recently of the formation 
of a so-called "Green Internationale" among the peasants of central 
and eastern Europe, in opposition to the "Red Internationale" of 
the town socialists and communists. 

Green Hands. Workers who are new to the particular task 
or industry at which they are employed, or who have not yet become 

[ 196 ] 



"seasoned" in the methods of a particular plant. While "green" 
workers are often "unskilled" workers, the two terms are by no 
means synonymous. 

Green Internationale. See Green. 

Greenbackism. As associated with the American labor move- 
ment from about 1867 to 1878, this was the theory that working- 
class interests would best be served by the suppression of banks of 
issue, the confinement of currency to "greenbacks" or paper cur- 
rency put out by the government, and the total or partial payment 
of the national debt in such ciurency. Greenbackism was "the 
American form of Europe's socialism and anarchism" which were 
then dividing the foreign labor movement. (See National Labor 
Union.) 

Greener. A name applied in England to an alien just landed 
in that country, particularly one unskilled in any trade and more 
or less destitute. 

Greve aux Bras Croises. In France, the "folded arms strike" 
— one in which the workers play a purely passive part, and which 
is mainly a test of financial strength between employer and employees. 

Greve Per lee (Pearled Strike). The French designation for 
that form of sabotage which consists in creating the greatest pos- 
sible amount of confusion and loss to an employer by intentional 
"mistakes" and inefficiency of employees. Thus, packages may be 
misdirected, the wrong goods delivered to a customer, telegrams made 
unintelligible or misleading, stock misplaced, important letters 
delayed, etc. The general purpose is to worry and distract the 
employer into granting the workers' demands. 

Grievance Committee. Usually a standing committee ap- 
pointed by a local trade union to confer with employers in regard 
to the adjustment of complaints brought to its attention by members 
of the union. Grievance committees are also sometimes set up 
by the employees of individual plants — occasionally under the em- 
ployer's initiative. (See Trade Union Government — Local.) 

Grievance Fund. See Strike Fund. 

Grinding Money. In certain British trades in which the 
workers supply their own steel tools, this is an extra payment, 
14 . [197] 



usually stipulated in the working rules, for time spent by the men 
in sharpening their tools. 

Group Insurance. A single insurance policy, usually taken 
out by an employer and covering all his employees against sickness 
and death, regardless of their various ages and conditions and without 
requiring any individual action or payment on their part. Group 
insurance has also been successfully adopted by the British coopera- 
tive movement. 

Group Piece Work. See Collective Piece Work. 

Griitliverein (Griitli Union). The oldest of Swiss labor or- 
ganizations; founded in 1838. It maintains numerous branches 
throughout the country; but its efforts are directed more toward 
political and socialistic than toward ptu-ely industrial ends. It is 
at present largely merged in the Swiss Socialist Party, of which it 
forms the opportunist wing. 

Gruppenrate (Group Councils). See German Works Coun- 
cils Law. 

Guaranteed Time. Refers to the principle, established by 
some trade unions, that if a worker is hired at all he must be assured 
a full day's or week's work or, failing that, full pay for the period. 
It is often proposed, by those who advocate making unemployment 
"a charge on the industry," that this principle should be extended 
to cover the entire year. 

Guerilla Unionism. See Predatory Unionism. 

Guild or Gild. Historically, an association of craftsmen and 
merchants, exercising a monopoly over a particular trade or craft in 
a single town. Guilds of this type practically controlled the industry 
of medieval Europe. Roughly speaking, they were associations of 
producers of a particular commodity within a particular area, grouped 
together to protect their own interests and the interests of the con- 
sumer. They fixed prices and wages, as well as quality standards 
of production, and in many cases played also a prominent part in 
the social and political activities of their localities. At first bene- 
ficial in its effects upon master, worker, and consumer alike, the guild 
system later degenerated into a selfish and exclusive industrial oli- 
garchy. The change from town economy to national economy, 
the rise of a capitalistic class, internal feuds, external suppression, 
and various other causes led to the gradual extinction of the guilds, 

[198] 



although certain nominal survivals are still to be found in various 
parts of Europe. Some authorities trace the origin of the modem 
trade union back to the medieval guilds, but this connection has been 
rather convincingly disproved by Mr. and Mrs. Webb. Quite aside 
from the above-described system, the term "guild" is often used in 
designation of various forms of association for cooperative effort, 
some of which are of considerable antiquity. (See Industrial Evo- 
lution; Handicraft System.) 

Guild Congress. See Guild Socialism; Functional Democ- 
racy. 

Guild Socialism. A plan for the management of industry 
by self-governing organizations of workers, acting in cooperation 
with the political State, which has won many adherents in Great 
Britain during the past few years. Under this plan, *' ownership of 
the means of production is to rest with the community, but the Trade 
Unions are to be definitely recognized by the State as the normal 
controllers of industry. They are to be statutory bodies exercising 
a monopoly but admitting of free entry on reasonable conditions. 
The amount and character of their production are to be determined 
for them by demand, but the methods and processes are to be left 
entirely in their hands: they are to elect their own officials, and to 
be self-governing corporations with the widest powers. In fact, 
they are to resemble in their main characteristics the self-govern- 
ing professions, the doctors and the lawyers, of the present. As the 
Unions will include every one concerned in the industry, from gen- 
eral manager to laborers, they will be in essence 'Guilds,' i.e., asso- 
ciations not of dependent, but of independent, producers." This 
simimary is from the pen of one of the leaders in the movement, 
G. D. H. Cole. The same writer says, in another place: "We who 
call ourselves National Guildsmen look forward to a community 
in which production will be organized through democratic associa- 
tion of all the workers in each industry linked up in a body repre- 
senting all the workers in all industries. On the other hand we look 
forward to a democratization of the State and of local government, 
and to sharing of industrial control between producers and constim- 
ers. The State should own the means of production; the Guild should 
control the work of production." Under this plan there would be, 
in addition to the Parliament or national political assembly (elected, 
as at present, on a territorial basis and representing the community 
as consumers), a national "Guild Congress," consisting of represen- 
tatives of the national guilds and representing the community as 

[199] 



producers, which would enact and enforce all purely industrial legis- 
lation. An equal number of representatives from the Parliament 
and the Guild Congress, in the form of a Joint Committee, woiild 
constitute the ultimate sovereign body of the community. Rela- 
tions between different groups of producers would be the concern 
of the Guild Congress; matters concerning the territorial or geo- 
graphical interests of the inhabitants, and their interests as con- 
sumers, would be decided by the Parliament; while all disputes 
between these two bodies, and questions involving producers and 
constmiers alike, would be decided by the Joint Committee. Thus, 
guild socialism steers a middle course between syndicalism, on the 
one hand, which would abolish the political State altogether and 
take account of men only or chiefly as producers; and, on the other 
hand, State socialism, which would enhance the powers of the 
political State and deal with men wholly or chiefly as consumers. 
The British guild socialists are divided into several factions, differing 
chiefly on the form of the political Parliament, or the degree of sov- 
ereignty which it will exercise, in connection with the Guild Congress 
or economic Parliament. But notwithstanding divided counsels 
in the movement, guild socialism has exerted a strong influence on 
a niunber of prominent trade unionists, and it has been made the 
basis of several interesting experiments in British industrial affairs. 
(See Functional Democracy; Dual State; Collective Con- 
tr.\ct; Industrialized Nationalization.) 

Gumshoes. See Under-Cover ^Ien. 

Gunmen. See Armed Guards. 

Guv'nor's Man. See Company Man. 



H 



Half Members. In some unions, as for example the United 
Mine Workers, boys under sixteen years of age are taken into the 
union as **half members." They pay only half as much in the way 
of dues and assessments as full members, and have but half a vote 
in the deliberations of the local union. 

Half -Time System. Under the British factory and work- 
shop ACTS, this term refers to the various regulations and restrictions 
under which children and young persons may be employed either 
for consecutive half -days (that is, in morning or afternoon **sets") 
or for alternate full days during the week; leaving one-half of their 
time free for schooling. Those employed under the half-time system 
are commonly known as ''half-timers." 

Half -Timers. See Half-Time System. 

Halsey Plan. This, the simplest form of the premium bonus 
SYSTEM of wage payment, was devised by F. A. Halsey, an American 
engineer. By reference to past records the normal or standard time 
required for a given job is ascertained. If the worker completes the 
job in less than this standard time, he receives a bonus or premium, 
graduated in proportion to the amount of time saved. If he does 
not produce the normal amount of work, he still receives the usual 
time wage. Thus, if the standard time allowance for a job is ten hours, 
and the worker does the job in six hours, payment will be made for 
six hours and also for a proportion (usually either one-third or one- 
half) of the fotir hours saved in doing the job. 

Hammering from Without. See Dual Unionism; Boring 
FROM Within. 

Handicraft System. A name given to the second stage in 
modem industrial evolution — the stage following the family 
system and preceding the domestic system. This is the stage, 
according to W. J. Ashley, ''when professional craftsmen come into 

[201] 



existence: men who, though they may have small holdings of land 
which they cultivate, and may indeed receive remuneration in tlie 
shape, to some extent, of these holdings, are yet primarily crafts- 
men — primarily, for instance, weavers or smiths. . . . Production in 
this stage is still on a small scale ; it takes place either at the custom- 
er's home or in a small workshop or room or shed within or adjoining 
the craftsman's own dwelling; and there is no intermediary between 
producer and consumer. The producer either works on the customer's 
own materials or, if he buys his own material and has not only 
'labor' but a 'commodity' to sell, he deals directly with a small 
neighboring circle of patrons. There is a 'market* in the modem 
business or economic sense, but it is a small and near one, and the 
producer is in direct touch with it; though, indeed, it may some- 
times consist, not of the ultimate consuming public, but of fellow- 
artisans in some other 'mistery.'" (See Division of Labor; Town 
Economy; Guild.) 

Hands. A common designation, of long standing, for members 
of the working class — as for exam.ple, "mill hands," "farm hands," 
"factory hands," etc. The use of this term unconsciously reveals 
the deep-rooted conception of labor as a commodity, and of the 
laborer as a sort of automatic machine rather than a human being. 
(See Commodity Theory of Labor; Green Hands.) 

Handy -Man. See Helper. 

Hart, Schaffner & Marx Labor Agreement. This "indus- 
trial constitution," adopted by negotiation between a large men's 
clothing factory in Chicago and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers 
of America, has been called "the most successful and most highly 
developed machinery of labor adjustment in the United States — 
perhaps in the world." Since this agreement was first reached in 
January, 191 1, there has not been a strike in the large Hart, Schaffner 
& Marx establishment, employing normally 7,000 workers; although 
the employees, virtually all of whom are members of the Amalga- 
mated Clothing Workers, have gained a long succession of improve- 
ments in hours, wages, working conditions, and shop control. The 
essential feature of the plan is a system of continuous arbitration, 
vested in two permanent joint bodies — the Trade Board and the 
Board of Arbitration. The former, which is the primary board for 
adjusting grievances, consists of ten employees of the company, 
five chosen by the management and five by the union, with a chair- 
man representing the mutual interests of both sides. The Board of 

J 202I 



Arbitration, which has full and final jurisdiction over all matters 
arising under the agreement, consists of three members, one chosen 
by the management and one by the union, with an impartial chair- 
man selected by both parties. This impartial chairman is in effect 
the controlling or regulating factor in the entire arrangement. Be- 
sides these two bodies, provision is made for various minor officials — 
company and imion deputies, shop chairmen, etc. — who assist 
in the operation of the agreement. The preferential shop principle 
is an important feature of the entire arrangement. Labor agreements 
modelled on the Hart, Schaffner & Marx plan have been adopted by 
many other American employers in the men's clothing trade. 

Hartal. The name given to a mild form of general strike 
in India. The hartal has so far been resorted to mainly by way of 
political protest, and is more in the nature of passive resistance than 
active insurrection. "On appointed days a general strike of the 
classes and the masses is called in protest against some injustice, 
and business is practically suspended in one or several large towns 
of a province. Frequently the call extends to the towns in several 
provinces." The hartal was originally an ancient Indian custom — 
a day of public mourning. Its modem form, as described above, is 
sometimes called the satyagraha or ''passive resistance strike." 

Harvest Labor Problem. See Labor Outings. 

Harvest Stiff. A migratory worker, often a member of the 
I. W. W., who travels from farm to farm in the Western states, 
helping in harvesting operations, is thus colloquially known. (See 
Stiff.) 

Harvester Works Council Plan. As adopted in 1919 by the 
International Harvester Company, this plan provides for the forma- 
tion in each of the company's plants of a joint works committee 
or council for the "consideration of all questions of policy relating 
to working conditions, health, safety, hours of labor, wages, recrea- 
tion, education, and other similar matters of mutual interest." 
Employees and managem.ent have equal representation on the works 
council. The final decision upon any matter over which a dead- 
lock has been reached rests in the hands of an "impartial and dis- 
interested" arbitrator or arbitration committee. 

Harvesters. A trade union nickname for skilled workmen 
who come to this country from Europe for a few months of work 
during the "rush" season and then return home. Some unions, 

[ 203 ] 



notably the Stone Cutters' Association, have endeavored to abate 
the "harvester" evil by charging a high initiation fee to applicants 
from outside the United States. (See Birds of Passage.) 

Hazardous Occupations. Those which are dangerous to the 
life, limbs, or health of the workers who engage in them. According 
to a recent exhaustive investigation, there are eight general indus- 
tries which are more hazardous, in regard to fatal accidents, than 
service in the United States Army, and of these metal and coal 
mining head the list. The classification of hazardous industrial pro- 
cesses usually includes the cleaning and oiling of machinery, adjust- 
ment of belts, operation of machine saws or of stamping, washing, 
grinding, and mixing machines, and the manufacture of lead products 
or of compositions containing poisonous acids. Under the head of 
extra-hazardous occupations is generally included work in mines, 
at blast furnaces, or on railroads, in the outside erection of electric 
wires, or in the manufacture of explosives. (See Prohibited Em- 
ployments; Health Hazards; Industrial Hazard; Safety First 
Movement.) 

Health Hazards. With reference to industrial workers, these 
may be classified as dangers arising from (i) poisons, dusts, fimies, 
gases; (2) heat, humidity, improper ventilation; (3) bad or insuffi- 
cient lighting; (4) overcrowding; (5) inadequate or unsanitary wash- 
room and toilet arrangements; (6) speeding up, long working spells, 
OVERTIME work, NIGHT WORK, lack of proper rest periods; (7) 
association with diseased fellow- workers. (See Industrial Hazard.) 

Health Insurance. See Sickness Insurance. 

Helper or Handy -Man. An unskilled or semi-skilled worker 
who assists a journeyman in any industrial task. The helper must 
not be confused with the apprentice. "The latter is in training to 
become a journeyman. He uses jotimeymen's tools; he is permitted 
if efficient to do journeyman's work, and he is under the super- 
vision of the joimieymen's union. The helper or laborer, except 
in a few of the trades, is not in training; he is not allowed to use 
journeymen's tools, and in most cases he belongs to an independent 
union. As his name implies, he helps the journeyman; he is supposed 
to do the unskilled work and to lend a hand when required to do so." 
Clauses limiting the nimiber of helpers a journeyman may have, 
and restricting the work which they may perform, are found in the 
rules of many trade unions. (See Berkshire System; Improver.) 

[204] 



Hirsch-Duncker Unions. See Gewerkvereine. 

Hoboes. See Migratory Labor. 

Hold-Up Unionism. See Predatory Unionism. 

Holding Company. See Trust. 

Holland, Labor Organizations in. See Dutch Labor Ors 

GANIZATIONS. 

Home Finishing. See Home Work; Tenement-House Work; 
Pin Money Workers. 

Home Work. Immense quantities of small articles are manu- 
factured wholly or partly in the homes of workers. The latter may 
give practically all their time to industrial tasks, as is usually the case 
in tenement-house work; they may be factory workers who eke 
out their day wages by night work at home; or they may be what 
are called pin money workers, for whom the industrial task is in- 
cidental to the customary home concerns. In any case, they are in 
much the largest part women and children. Home work is particularly 
prevalent in the garment-making industry. A considerable part of 
the felling, hemming, button-sewing, basting-pulling, etc., (collec- 
tively known as ''finishing") on certain garments is done by home 
workers in city tenements and in the coimtry districts adjacent to 
garment-making centres. But home work is the rule rather than 
the exception in a nimiber of other industries as well. Considered 
in its general social implications, industrial home work conflicts with 
family duties, children are neglected, homes are uncared for, mothers 
are exhausted, and the children of home workers are made to labor 
during time they should spend in play and study. Even when the 
children do not actually assist in the industrial home work, they carry 
goods to and from the factory and inadequately perform many of 
the household tasks that their mothers have not the time or energy 
to do, such as dishwashing, sweeping, cooking, and taking care of 
the babies. School records indicate that ''many children engaged 
regularly in home work attend school irregularly, are dull when they 
do attend and frequently fail in their term's work." From the trade 
union point of view, remark Mr. and Mrs. Webb, home work "nec- 
essarily involves Individual Bargaining, and makes, moreover, 
the enforcement of any Common Rule practically impossible. . . . 
Nor are these insidious effects confined merely to the outworkers. 
The operatives employed on similar tasks on the employer's premises 
have to submit to reductions of wages and extensions of hours, 

[205] 



under the threat of the diversion of more and more of the business to 
their out- working competitors. Home work, in fact, makes all Trade 
Unionism impossible." (See Outwork; Cottage Industry; Sweat- 
ing System; Sub-Contracting; Farming Out; Parasitic Indus- 
tries.) 

Homestead Act. This Congressional enactment of 1862, pro- 
viding for free occupation of public lands under certain conditions, 
is generally regarded as early labor legislation, as it furnished an 
outlet to laborers from the overcrowded mines and factories of the 
East, and thus had an important effect upon industrial conditions 
for a long period. 

Honorary Card. See Withdrawal Card. 

Horizontal Combination. See Large-Scale Production. 

Horizontal Wage. A uniform time wage paid to all workers 
in a single class, regardless of differences in individual efhciency. 

Hospital-Fee System. Where an employer provided medical 
and surgical treatment for sick or injured workers, it was long cus- 
tomary to deduct a certain amount (usually fifty cents to a dollar) 
from the monthly or semi-monthly wages of each employee, as a 
compulsory fee for the services thus provided. This *' hospital-fee 
system," which still survives to a limited extent, was a source of much 
dissatisfaction among the workers. 

Hour Laws. Legislative enactments regulating the hours of 
labor for specific kinds of labor or for particular industries or occupa- 
tions are generally so called. In the United States, the numerous 
state statutes of this sort may be divided into four classes, the first 
class including those which merely fix what shall be regarded as a 
full day's labor in the absence of any contract between the parties, 
and these may either be general or extended only to special occupa- 
tions; second, those laws which fix the labor of persons not fully 
sui juris, as minors, or, in some states, women of all ages; third, 
those which fix the hotus of labor under the police power in occupa- 
tions specially dangerous or unsanitary, or in which the safety of 
the public is specially concerned; and, finally, those which fix the 
hours of adult laborers, male as well as female, in general occupa- 
tions, and prohibit contracts for longer hours without special rates 
or pay for overtime. While nearly all the states have laws restrict- 
ing women's and children's hours of work in all industries, and men's 
hours in certain industries, only two have imposed a general restric- 

[ 206 ] 



tion regardless of age, sex, or kind of industry. The basis of all hour 
laws ' ' is not the need of the working people for fewer hours in order 
that they may have more leisure in general, but simply the injury 
• imposed by the occupation upon their health. This of course is a 
broad position and is indefinite in extent. Legislation regulating 
the hours of women applies to all factories, and often in practice 
makes it necessary for employers to fix the same hours for men in 
the same establishments. While it is doubtless true that in many 
occupations excessive hours are injurious to the health of men as 
well as women, conditions differ greatly in different industries, or 
even in different establishments in the same industry. Legislation, 
therefore, upon this subject cannot be general, but must be based 
upon accurate investigation of the conditions in the several indus- 
tries." While in manufactiures and mining the regulation of hours 
belongs to the several states, yet in transportation the interstate 
character of the industry brings the subject under the powers of 
Congress. There is one phase of legislation affecting the hoiirs of 
labor wherein the interests of private employment are not directly 
affected — namely, the hours of workmen employed directly by the 
Federal, state, and local governments. These different governments 
combined are undoubtedly the largest employers of labor in the 
United States, and whatever labor legislation is enacted affecting 
them has relatively important weight upon the condition of the 
working people in general. The Federal government has been the 
pioneer in reducing the hours of labor of its employees, and a con- 
siderable number of state and local governments have followed its 
example in adopting the eight-hour day. (See Short Hour 
Movement; Sixteen-Hour Law; Adamson Law; Working Hours 
IN Russia; Working Hours in Germany.) 

Hour Work. The system of wage payment under which the 
worker receives a specified simi per hour of working time. The term 
"hour work" is sometimes used as a general synonym for time work. 

House of Call System. A method practiced in several im- 
portant British trades, by which an employer needing a workman 
is encouraged or required to send to a specified place of resort for the 
unemployed, termed a "house of call," and the man who has been 
longest on the list or "call book " of such a place is, if suitable, deputed 
to fill the vacancy. 

Household Assistant System. In an effort to solve the 
vexed problem of domestic service, the United States Employ- 
ment Service organized early in 19 19 a special committee to study 

[207] 



this problem and make recommendations for its solution. The com- 
mittee has outlined a system on the following lines : * ' Regular eight- 
hour assistants engaged to be exclusive employees for the house- 
wives (preferably working for no one else at the same time) and 
engaged to work quite as permanently as ever servants do. They 
give eight hours a day, six days a week. They eat and sleep at home. 
They agree to give extra service whenever required, for which they 
are always to receive extra pay. The wage is determined according 
to a sliding scale of efficiency and length of time in employment, and 
does and should compare favorably with that which obtains in fac- 
tory, shop, and office. These assistants are engaged for regular specific 
duties, just as resident maids are, but — and here is to be found the 
safety valve never existing in our present order of domestic service — 
never, under any condition, is specialization permissible. During the 
eight hours they hold themselves ready to do whatever the circum- 
stances of the particular day require." 

Household Economy. In an historical sense, this is the 
name commonly given to the first stage in economic organization. 
Household economy *'is characterized by restriction of the whole 
course of economic activity, from production to consimiption, to the 
exclusive circle of the household (the family, the clan). The character 
and extent of the production of every household are prescribed by 
the wants of its members as consumers. Every product passes 
through the whole process of its manufacture, from the procuring 
of the raw material to its final elaboration in the same domestic 
establishment, and reaches the consumer without any intermediary. 
Production and consumption are here inseparably interdependent; 
they form a- single uninterrupted and indistinguishable process. The 
earnings of each communal group are one with the product of their 
labor, and this, again, one with the goods going to satisfy their 
wants, that is, with their consumption. . . . The members of the house- 
hold have not merely to gather from the soil its products, but they 
must also, by their labor, produce all the necessary tools and imple- 
ments and, finally, work up and transform the new products and 
make them fit for use." With the increasing concentration of society 
into walled towns, and the resulting complexity of economic organi- 
zation, household economy was succeeded by what is commonly 
known as town economy ; that in turn later giving place to national 
ECONOMY. (See Family or Household System; Feudalism.) 

Household System. See Family System. 

[208] 



Household Union. See Company Union. 

Housing. It is generally recognized that the provision of 
sanitary, comfortable, wholesome, and inexpensive living quarters 
for wage-earners is an indispensable requisite for any permanent 
condition of social well-being and industrial peace. The investiga- 
tions into this subject made by the Federal Commission on In- 
dustrial Relations are summarized in the following statements: 
*' (i) The present provisions for the housing of workmen are generally 
bad, not only in the large cities but in industrial communities of 
every size and in rural districts. (2) Not only are the houses and 
tenements which are available for workers largely insanitary and 
unfit for habitation, but they are inadequate, resulting in high 
rents, overcrowding and congestion. (3) Such conditions make not 
only for discomfort and unhappiness, but for disease and degenera- 
tion. (4) The ordinary method of supplying houses through their 
erection by private capitalists for investment and speculation has 
rarely if ever been adequate. (5) Excellent plans for the housing 
of workmen have been put into effect by a nimiber of firms and cor- 
porations, but such measures have not at all affected the general 
situation, and being dependent upon the volition of individuals can 
not be regarded as likely to greatly influence progress. (6) The 
tenement-house acts, as well as the health ordinances and building 
regulations of municipalities, while generally productive of good 
effects, are at best surface remedies and can never cure the evils of 
the present housing situation. (7) In every important European 
country government aid and direct intervention to curb speculation 
have proved to be necessary for the promotion of any real progress. 
(8) Governmental action in Europe has chiefly taken the following 
forms: extension of credit to voluntary non-profit-making asso- 
ciations; construction by the Government of buildings which are 
leased for long periods on easy terms; exemption from taxation and 
other subsidies for homes constructed for occupancy by their owners; 
legislation designed to prevent the holding of land out of use and 
to secure for the Government a part of the 'unearned increment.'" 
(See British Housing Acts; Company Housing; Manchester 
Building Guild; Industrial Housing and Transportation 
Bureau.) 

Housing (Additional Powers) Act. See British Housing 
Acts. 

Housing and Town-Planning Act. See British Housing 
Acts. 

[ 209 ] 



Human Engineering. This term has been applied to various 
efforts *'to restore as far as possible the personal element to industry 
^to make it possible for employers to gain an inkling of the problems 
and the aspirations of their employees, and for employees to come 
into touch with some of the problems which the business man must 
solve." As commonly used, the term is synonymous, in a broad and 
general sense, with personnel administration. 

Human Relations Department. See Industrial Relations 
Department. 

Hungarian Trade Union Commission. See Ungarlandis- 

CHER GeWERKSCHAFTSRAT. 

Hunk. See Hunky. 

Hunky. A common nickname in the United States for a laborer 
belonging to one of the Slavic races. ''Hunk" and **bohunk" are 
alternate forms often used. 

Hunting the Fox. See Chasse aux Renard. 



I. C. A. See International Cooperative Alliance. 

I. F. T. U. See International Federation of Trade Unions. 

I. L. P. See Independent Labor Party. 

I. L. P. and T. U. C. See Irish Labor Party and Trades 
Union Congress. 

I. S. B. See International Socialist Bureau. 

I. S. S. See Intercollegiate Socialist Society. 

I. T. and G. W. U. See Irish Transport and General 
Workers' Union. 

I. W. W. The initials by which both an individual member 
of the Industrial Workers of the World and the organization 
itself are most commonly known. 

Idle Money. See Out-of-Work Benefits. 

Illegal Men. Workers who have not served the regulation 
apprenticeship period, and thus gained the right to follow their 
trade as qualified journeymen, are sometimes so called. 

Illegal Strike. See Independent Strike. 

Immigration. The influx of great numbers of foreign-bom 
laborers, mostly unskilled and accustomed to lower standards of 
living than the native-born workman, has played a most important 
part in the American labor movement. According to Professor 
Commons, "no understanding of the American movement, compared 
with that especially of England, can be acquired until one perceives 
the importance of race and language. These underlie the strenuous 
demand of American unions for the closed shop, as compared with 
the relative indifference of English unionists on this subject. The 
closed shop is essentially labor's application of the protective tariff 

[211] 



principle. ... It is, therefore, on this question of races and immigra- 
tion that the real class conflict in American industry has occurred; 
for the backward or alien races have been made the instruments 
of employers to reduce the wages of the older nationalities. The 
hostility to immigration, exhibited by American unionists, is simply 
evidence of their attack upon the instruments used by their employers 
to defeat their demands." The economic effects of immigration are 
thus siunmarized by the staff of the Federal Commission on In- 
dustrial Relations, on the basis of evidence presented to the Com- 
mission: "(i) The immigration policy of the United States has 
created a nimiber of our most difficult and serious industrial problems 
and has been responsible in a considerable measure for the existing 
state of INDUSTRIAL UNREST. (2) The enormous influx of immigrants 
during the past twenty-five years has already undermined the 
American standard of living for all workmen except those in the 
skilled trades, and has been the largest single factor in preventing 
the wage scale from rising as rapidly as food prices. (3) The great 
mass of non-English-speaking workers, who form about one-half of 
the labor force in the basic industries, has done much to prevent the 
development of better relations between employers and employees. 
(4) The presence of such a large proportion of immigrants has greatly 
hampered the formation of trade imions and has tremendously in- 
creased the problem of securing effective and responsible organiza- 
tions. (5) The unreasonable prejudice of almost every class of 
Americans toward the immigrants, who form such a large proportion 
of the labor force of our industries, has been largely responsible for 
the failure of otir Nation to reach a correct understanding of the 
labor problem and has promoted the harshness and brutality which 
has so often been manifested in connection with industrial disturb- 
ances. It has been and to a large measure still is felt possible to dis- 
miss the most revolting working conditions, the most brutal treat- 
ment, or the most criminal invasion of personal rights, by saying, 
'Oh, well, they are just ignorant foreigners.' " The increasing success 
of American trade unions in organizing the foreign-bom workers, 
as apparent particularly among the coal-mine and garment workers, 
has lessened these evils in some degree ; but opposition to unrestricted 
immigration is still a prominent item in the programme of organized 
labor. The first General Labor Conference of the League of 
Nations proposed that migrations of workers from one country to 
another be permitted only after obtaining the approval of the em- 
ployers' and the workers' organizations of both countries affected. 
In the United States no agency exists for consulting either employers 

[212] 



or workers on this question. A permanent immigration commission 
would, however, be the natural channel through which such mutual 
arrangement could be effected. (See Chinese Exclusion Laws; 
Japanese-American Passport Agreement; Asiatic Barred Zone; 
Contract Labor; Padrone System; Induced Immigration; As- 
sisted Immigration; Birds of Passage; Harvesters; Immigration 
Bureau; Naturalization Bureau; Immigration Law of 192 i.) 

Immigration Bureau. This is the second oldest of the five 
permanent bureaus of the United States Department of Labor, 
having been organized in 18 19 in the Treasury Department under 
the title of "Office of the Superintendent of Immigration." From 
1903 to 1 9 13 its functions were administered under the direction of 
the Secretary of Commerce and Labor; and in the last-named year, 
in accordance with the provisions of the organic act creating the 
Department of Labor, it became a part thereof. Under the direction 
of the Secretary of Labor this Bureau is charged with the adminis- 
tration of the various Federal acts regulating immigration and the 
admission of Chinese to the United States, and with the examination 
and registration of alien seamen arriving from foreign ports. 

Immigration Law of 1921. This "act to limit the immigra- 
tion of aliens into the United States," which went into effect June 
3, 192 1, provides that "the number of aliens of any nationality who 
may be admitted under the immigration laws to the United States 
in any fiscal year shall be limited to 3 per centtun of the number of 
foreign-bom persons of such nationality resident in the United 
States as determined by the United States census of 19 10." In 
practical effect, the law applies only to members of the working 
classes. 

Impartial Chairman. Joint arbitration boards or committees 
of employers and workers frequently utilize the services of an "out- 
side," "neutral," or "independent" person, who often presides at 
meetings of the board or committee and in some cases individually 
decides the matter in dispute. In the British trade machinery for 
CONCILIATION and arbitration, the impartial chairman (also called 
"neutral" or "independent" chairman) has long been prominent. 
"The power of this impartial chairman," to quote O'Brien's "Labor 
Organization," "differs greatly in different cases. For instance, 
in the Mining Conciliation Boards an independent chairman is only 
called in when the two parties fail to agree, and has only power to 
decide between the rival proposals of the two sides, without being 
15 [213] 



able to suggest a solution of his own, or to decide in favor of a com- 
promise. On the other hand, in the majority of cases, all disputes 
which cannot be settled by direct negotiations must be submitted 
to arbitration, and the decision of the arbitrator, whether it completely 
satisfies both sides or not, is made absolutely final under the sanction 
of a penalty. Again, the period when the impartial chairman appears 
on the scene is not the same in every case. Sometimes he is present 
from the beginning of the negotiation, and sometimes he is only 
introduced when the parties have failed to agree." In America, the 
impartial chairman plays a particularly important role in the clothing 
manufactiu-ing trades. The success of the Hart, Schaffner & 
Marx labor agreement led to the gradual adoption of a similar 
form of agreement between employers and workers in each of the 
large American clothing centres — Chicago, Boston, New York, 
Rochester, Baltimore, and Montreal. In each city a joint board of 
arbitration was organized, representative of all or most of the em- 
ployers and organized workers in the city; and a trained industrial 
expert was chosen as impartial chairman of the board. This official, 
paid and trusted by both sides, acts largely in the capacity of a court 
judge; trade disputes are argued before him and his decision is con- 
sidered final, except in rare cases when appeal is taken to the whole 
arbitration board. (See Continuous Arbitration; Protocol; Im- 
partial Machinery.) 

Impartial Machinery. This term is usually applied to the 
detailed arrangements, now often specified in local or national 
trade agreements, for investigating and adjusting minor disputes 
arising within a particular trade. The most common form of ma- 
chinery provided is the following: The parties to any particular 
dispute which may arise are bound, in case they can not agree 
between themselves, either to select one or more persons to act as 
an "arbitration committee" for that dispute, or to refer it to a 
permanent committee composed of an equal number of persons 
chosen by the organizations of employers and employees, respec- 
tively. If these representatives of the parties can not agree, they are 
to select some impartial person to act as an " umpire ' ' or odd mem- 
ber of the board, or to call in an umpire previously agreed upon as 
the ultimate arbitrator of all disputes. The imipire either alone 
renders a decision, or he sits in conjunction with the other members 
and they arrive at a decision by majority vote. In nearly all in- 
stances where written agreements provide for the settlement of 
disputes as to interpretation arising under them, they permit the 

[214] 



ultimate decision of the differences by an impartial imipire. It is 
generally stipulated that this person shall be neither an employer 
nor a wage-earner (in the common sense), nor an incumbent of 
political office. In some of the more elaborate systems there are 
special officials and committees for investigating and (if possible) 
adjusting grievances before they develop into definite disputes. 
(See Impartial Chairman; Continuous Arbitration.) 

Impossibilist, Impossibilism. In the field of socialism or 
labor, an *'impossibiHst" is a revolutionary or extremist— one who, 
according to the opposing or opportunist school, is seeking the im- 
possible. "Impossibilism" is an opponent's designation for the 
policy or philosophy of such a person. (See Left.) 

Improver. In an industrial sense, "one who labors at a trade 
for the purpose of increasing his knowledge or skill, and who 
accepts the opportunity of improvement as compensation in whole 
or in part for services rendered." An improver is usually one who 
has passed the apprentice age, but is allowed by the trade union 
to work at less than the union scale in order to acquire the pro- 
ficiency of a JOURNEYMAN. In some trades a worker must serve a 
specified term as a helper and another term as an improver before he 
can be classed as a journeyman. In other trades the helper is called 
an improver. (See Learner.) 

Incorporation of Trade Unions. Labor organizations in the 
United States have usually been considered voluntary associations, 
not subject as collective bodies to legal action. But employers have 
long and frequently virged that trade unions should be required to 
incorporate under the various state laws, in order that they may be 
held legally accountable for breach of contract and other civil 
or criminal offenses. Labor leaders oppose this proposal — mainly 
on the ground that their funds would be subject to continual danger 
and attack by court action in cases of labor disputes, thus seriously 
crippling if not nullifying the fighting strength of trade unionism. 
In England this issue was fought out and practically settled in con- 
nection with the Taff Vale case and the resulting Trade Disputes 
Act of 1906; but it still remains a much debated question in 
American industrial affairs. 

Increasing Misery Theory. A much discussed and much 
disputed tenet of scientific socialism, derived from the following 
statement by Karl Marx: "Along with the constantly diminishing 
number of magnates of capital, who usurp and monopolize all advan- 

[215] 



tages of this process of transformation, grow the mass of misery, 
oppression, slavery, degradation, exploitation; but with this too 
grows the revolt of the working-class, a class always increasing 
in numbers, and disciplined, united, organized by the very mechanism 
of the process of capitalist production itself." Defenders of this 
theory maintain that it refers to mental rather than physical misery 
— that the more the working classes rise intellectually, the more 
keenly are they likely to feel the burden of "oppression," "slavery," 
and "degradation." 

Incremental Scale. As opposed to a flat rate for time work, 
this is a scale of wage payments which ranges upward from an 
agreed minimiim, and varies either with the quality or nature of 
the work done, or with the length of service or the qualifications of 
the worker concerned. (See Grading System ; Wage Differential.) 

Indentured Service. The system, common in the 17th and 
1 8th centuries, under which labor was performed according to a 
written agreement between master and servant, ninning for a speci- 
fied number of years. "The master was not free to discharge his 
servant during the term of his contract, nor the servant free to quit 
his master and to work for another. The laborer was to serve the 
master faithfully, keep his secrets, obey his lawful commands, and 
guard his interests. On the other hand, the master was to give his 
servant a living, to protect him and look after his welfare." Inden- 
tured service marks the transition stage, historically, from servile 
LABOR to so-called free labor under the modem wage system. 
It still exists, however, though in a much modified form and to 
only a small extent, in the system of indentured apprenticeship 
occasionally found in some highly skilled trade. (See Contract 
Labor.) 

Independent American Shop. See American Plan. 

Independent Chairman. See Impartial Chairman. 

Independent Labor Party. A British organization, formed 
in 1892 under the leadership of Keir Hardy, Tom Mann, and Bruce 
Glasier, for the purpose of securing the collective ownership of the 
means of production and exchange through the method of direct 
labor representation in Parliament and in local government bodies. 
It is now the largest socialist body in the country. It cooperates 
with the British Labor Party, in the formation and development 
of which it has been an important factor, and with the Trades Union 

[216] 



Congress. While the party has withdrawn from the second Inter- 
nationale, under the influence of a strong left-wing movement, it 
has not yet affiliated with the third. An "Information Committee," 
for the collection and distribution of data on home and foreign 
affairs, was established as part of the organization's work in 19 19. 
(See International Working Union of Socialist Parties.) 

Independent Local. A local which is not affiliated with 
the national union in the same craft or industry. Independent 
locals are usually the result of secession from the national organiza- 
tion. In some cases, however, they precede the national union, 
refusing for one reason or another to affiliate with the latter body 
when it is organized, although often maintaining friendly relations 
with it. 

Independent Operator. See Operator. 

Independent Strike. One that is inaugurated by a local 
union without the consent of the officers of the national union, 
or without compliance with the rules of the national union. While 
some locals have complete autonomy in the matter of strikes, and in 
others the independent strike is permitted in certain circumstances, 
as a rule the national unions forbid any strike without the official 
sanction of the national executive board of the union concerned. 
The usual penalty for entering on an independent strike is the with- 
holding of STRIKE PAY from the offending local. The individual 
strikers are sometimes fined, suspended or expelled; and in more 
extreme cases the charter of the offending local is suspended or 
revoked. But in actual practice, the power of the national officers 
to punish a union for entering upon an unauthorized strike is likely 
to be waived. When a strike is once begun the superior officers of 
a union are likely to consider that their duty to the organization, 
to their fellow-members, and to their class will be best done by 
supporting those to whom they are bound by fraternal ties. In- 
dependent strikes are sometimes referred to as "illegal," "outlaw," 
"runaway," or "wildcat" strikes. They have occurred with such 
increasing frequency during the past few years as seriously to alann 
conservative union leaders. (See Vacationists.) 

Independent Union. See Independent Local; Selbstand- 

IGE VeREINE. 

Indeterminate Agreement. See Trade Agreement. 

Indeterminate Contract. See Contract at Will. 

[217] 



Index Numbers. The relative fluctuations of collective com- 
modity prices, wages, etc., from month to month or from year to 
year are now generally expressed by so-called "index ntimbers." 
The method of arriving at such index nimibers, with reference to 
commodity prices for example, is as follows: A certain number of 
commodities is selected, and the aggregate prices of specified quan- 
tities of these commodities at a certain fixed time, or an average of 
the aggregate prices for such fixed time, is taken as a base and desig- 
nated as loo. The aggregate prices, or an average of the aggregate, 
of the same commodities at other times are then calculated as per- 
centages of this base. Index numbers for commodities and wages 
are published monthly by the labor departments of several prominent 
countries. They are an important factor in determining variations 
in the cost of living and the relation between nominal wages and 
real wages. (See Weighted Index Numbers.) 

India, Labor Organization in. Owing to various reasons — 
the extreme poverty, long hours of labor, overcrowding in cities, 
lack of education, government repression, etc. — organization of the 
workers in India has until very recently been of a limited and primitive 
sort. But as a result of the recent war, conditions are now rapidly 
changing. The thousands of Indian troops serving on the western 
front have brought back western ideas of working conditions and 
wages, and this, added to the increase in the cost of living — an 
increase which in many cases makes it impossible for the Indian 
worker to eke out an existence on the old wage — has resulted in much 
urirest. There has developed considerable agitation for improvements 
in working conditions aside from a mere rise in wages, and organiza- 
tion of the working classes is making rapid headway. The first 
regular trade unions were formed in 191 8 in Madras, when the Madras 
Labor Union was established, with separate sections for the textile 
workers, the tramwaymen, the railway workshop employees, the 
rickshawallahSy and the printers. This movement in a couple of 
years attained 17,000 members. Equally important developments 
have taken place in Bombay and at other industrial centres. In 
Bombay, a mass conference of mill hands in December, 191 9, simi- 
moned by the Kamgar Hitwardhak Sabha (an Indian Working 
Men's Welfare Association), inaugurated the new movement. There 
followed the Bombay cotton strike of January, 1920, which involved 
200,000 workers, and ended in a settlement reported as securing a 
ten-hour day and a rise of twenty to forty per cent in wages. During 
1920 industrial agitation and disputes spread all over the Indian 

[218] 



industrial centres. In the single month of October twenty-three 
large-scale strikes and lockouts were reported, involving weavers, 
tramwaymen, coolies, gas workers, railway workers, printers, paper- 
mill and sawmill workers, cement workers, etc., and taking place 
in districts as widely separated as Assam, Bangalore, Bombay, 
Calcutta, Lucknow, Mysore, and Rangoon. In October, 1920, the 
first All-India Trades Union Congress assembled at Bombay. 
(See Workers' Welfare League of India; Hartal.) 

Indirect Action. See Political Action; Parliamentarism; 
Legal Enactment. 

Individual Bargaining. As opposed to collective bargain- 
ing, this is the method by which an individual worker arranges the 
terms and conditions of his employment directly with an employer 
or the latter 's representative, without the advantage of group pres- 
sure and on the basis simply of his own and the employer's necessities 
at the moment. The tremendous inequality of bargaining strength 
between the two parties under this method is well indicated in the 
Federal Industrial Commission's report: "The workman has one 
thing to sell — his labor. He has perhaps devoted years to the acquire- 
ment of a skill which gives his labor power a relatively high value, 
so long as he is able to put it to use in combination with certain 
materials and machinery. A single legal person has, to a very great 
extent, the control of such machinery, and in particular of such 
materials. Under such conditions there is little competition for the 
workman's labor. Control of the means of production gives power 
to dictate to the workingman upon what terms he shall make use of 
them. . . . The tendency toward unified control of capital and business 
has only intensified, without essentially changing, the disadvantages 
of the wage-earner in his dealings with employers. Even when the 
number of employers is considerable, the number of workmen is far 
greater. The competition for work is normally far sharper than the 
competition for workmen. The seller of labor is worse off in several 
respects than the seller of almost any physical product. His com- 
modity is in the highest degree perishable. That which is not sold 
today disappears absolutely. Moreover, in the majority of cases the 
workingman is dependent upon the sale of his labor for his support. 
If he refuses an offer, the next comer will probably accept it, and he 
is likely to be left destitute. If, on the other hand, he accepts less 
than a certain minimum wage, his efficiency suffers. If the other 
conditions of the market remain unchanged, he can get even less 
tomorrow than today; for he can accomplish less. . . . The art of 

[219] 



bargaining consists in a great degree in concealing one's own best 
terms and learning one's opponent's. The workman cannot conceal 
his need of work, and cannot know how much his employer needs 
men. He is relatively ignorant of the conditions of the market, 
both the market for labor and the market for the goods which his 
employer produces. It is the business of his employer to keep him- 
self informed of the state of both markets. The employer is able to 
judge what he can afford to pay for a given quantity and kind of labor 
rather than do without it. He is also in a position to judge at what 
rate he can probably get it. Under such conditions the result of 
free competition is to throw the advantages of the bargain into the 
hands of the stronger bargainer." As a result, the individual worker 
usually makes no bargain at all — he merely accepts or rejects the 
terms offered by the employer. Individual bargaining is sometimes 
known among trade unionists as "competitive bargaining." (See 
Freedom of Contract; Common Rule.) 

Individual Bonus System. See Bonus System. 

Individual Effort System. See Emerson System. 

Individual Piece Work. As distinguished from collective 
piece work, this is the arrangement under which piece work wages 
are paid for the output of a single worker — the common or usual 
basis. Also called "single-handed piece work." 

Individual Strike. See Strike in Detail. 

Individualism. In a general sense, that theory or attitude of 
mind which opposes State or other collective interference in social 
and economic affairs, which favors independent action rather than 
cooperative effort, and which would limit the functions of the State 
to the maintenance of order, protection of property, and national 
defense. Individualism involves or implies, according to Mr. and 
Mrs. Webb, "the conception of society as a struggle between warring 
interests; the feeling that every man and every class is entitled to all 
that they can get, and to nothing more; the assumption that success 
in the fight is an adequate test of merit, and, indeed, the only one 
possible; and the bounding optimism which can confidently place the 
welfare of the community under the guardianship of self-interest." 
It thus represents the opposite extreme from paternalism and col- 
lectivism, and is in general identified with the policy of laissez 

FAIRE. 

Individualist Anarchism. See Anarchism. 

[ 220 ] 



Induced Immigration. Refers to the practice of inducing, 
assisting, encouraging, or soliciting foreign laborers to come to this 
country to find employment here, whether under contract or by any 
kind of promise or agreement, express or implied, true or false. (See 
Contract Labor; Padrone System; Assisted Immigration.) 

Industrial Accident Insurance. See Workmen's Compen- 
sation. 

Industrial Action. As opposed to political action, indus- 
trial action signifies the use of trade union organization to express 
directly the policies and interests of labor without going through 
the long intermediate process of parliamentary election and debate. 
Whereas political action relies upon the ballot, industrial action lays 
emphasis upon the strength and influence of the industrially effective 
group. (See Direct Action; Economic Action.) 

Industrial Agreement. See Trade Agreement. 

Industrial Arbitration in Russia. In nationalized (State- 
conducted) Russian industries the terms of employment are regulated 
by rules framed by the labor organizations, subject to the approval 
of the People's Commissariat of Labor. In establishments oper- 
ated by private capitalists the terms of employment are regulated by 
rules agreed upon between the owners or directors of the establish- 
ments and the labor unions, likewise subject to approval by the 
People's Commissariat of Labor. If no agreement can be reached 
between management and workers, the terms of employment are 
drawn up by the trade unions and submitted for approval to the 
People's Commissariat of Labor. This provision of the Soviet 
labor laws is theoretically tantamount to compulsory arbitration. 
It must be borne in mind, however, that the People's Commissariat 
is a Soviet institution, in the election of which the workers them- 
selves have a dominating vote. 

Industrial Benefit Societies. Mutual aid societies organ- 
ized on an occupational or industrial basis — a type common in Europe 
but not yet developed to any considerable extent in the United States. 

Industrial Brotherhood. An organization founded soon 
after the collapse of the National Labor Union in 1872. As origi- 
nally constituted, it was a federation of four leading national craft 
unions of that time — the iron" moulders, machinists, coopers, and 
typographers. It failed to survive the long period of industrial 
depression that followed the panic of 1873. 

[221] 



Industrial Cooperation. See Producers' Cooper.\tion. 

Industrial Council. Any delegate body meeting periodically 
to consider matters of industrial concern may properly be called an 
industrial council. In common usage, however, this term usually 
denotes a "joint" body, representative of both employers and wage- 
earners in a single industrial shop or works, a single industry within 
a given geographical area, or a number of industries within a given 
area. Thus, it may denote at one extreme such a relatively unim.por- 
tant body as a joixt shop committee; and, at the other extreme, 
such a nationally comprehensive organization as the French Conseil 
SuPERiEUR Du Travail or the German Reichswirtschaftsrat. 
In between these two extremes come many varieties and forms, 
some of which are specifically noted in the cross references below. 
While an industrial council, as mentioned above, is commonly 
imderstood to be a "joint" body, the term "joint industrial 
council" is so generally associated with the Whitley plan that the 
definition under that heading in the present volume is confined to 
the Whitley council form. (See Industrial Council System in 
Belgium; Arbeitsgemeinschaften; Councils of Labor and 
Industry; Arbeiterkammern; IQ.mers van xVrbeid; Interim In- 
dustrial Reconstruction Committees; Building Trades Par- 
liament; Port Labor Committee; AIarket Boards; National 
Board for Jurisdictional Awards in the Building Industry; 
Printing Trades International Joint Conference Council; 
National Adjustment Commission; Works Committee; Employee 
Representation; Joint Conference System.) 

Industrial Council System in Belgium. The post-war 
problems of wage adjustment, etc., in Belgiimi have since the armis- 
tice been settled almost wholly by joint industrial councils of 
employers and workers. As both groups are highly organized, mostly 
in national imions for each industn,', with single national organiza- 
tions for the whole of the mining industr}^ the metallurgic industries, 
etc., on both sides, they easily came together for national confer- 
ences in each group of trades. Representatives of the employers' 
associations met an equal number of labor union delegates, and all 
the government was asked to do was to nominate officials of the De- 
partment of Industry and Labor as impartial chairmen and pro- 
vide them with the necessary secretarial staff to record the decisions 
and make them public. By this simple form of collective bar- 
gaining, with a minimum of official interference, labor conditions 
were fixed on a national scale before the resumption of work. In all 

[ 222 ] 



the important industries these joint conferences of organized em- 
ployers and workers have developed into permanent industrial 
councils for the settlement of labor conditions, on a nation-wide 
scale, with district and shop councils for the adjustment of local 
problems. 

Industrial Counsellors. A name sometimes given to public 
officials whose function it is to study methods of personnel admin- 
istration and conference relationships and through consultation 
with employers and labor leaders aid "in the development of measures 
which will make possible the necessary economic adjustments with 
a minimum of strikes, lockouts, and other disturbances." Two per- 
manent "industrial counsellors" have recently been appointed by 
the New York State Industrial Commission. 

Industrial Courts Act. A British Parliamentary enactment 
of November, 1919, which provides for a permanent central Court 
of Arbitration (called the Industrial Court), to which recourse can 
be had by parties to industrial disputes, if both sides consent. The 
Court consists of an unspecified number of members, appointed by 
the Minister of Labor, "of whom some shall be independent persons, 
some shall be persons representing employers, and some shall be 
persons representing workmen, and in addition one or more women." 
Normally the Court sits in London, but when necessary it arranges 
to hear cases elsewhere. The President of the Court may also 
depute individual members to hear cases locally in certain circum- 
stances. There is a further provision under the same Act for the 
appointment by the Minister of Labor of special courts of inquiry, 
to make immediate investigation of any existing or apprehended 
dispute (whether or not it is directly referred to the Court for settle- 
ment) and to give an impartial report of its merits to the public. 
While the courts of inquiry may compel the production of documents 
and attendance of witnesses in securing facts regarding a labor dis- 
pute, neither they nor the permanent Industrial Court have compul- 
sory powers to enforce their findings or decisions, and the Act 
contains no prohibition of strikes. 

Industrial Cycle or Economic Cycle. A term somewhat 
loosely used to denote the period of time (commonly from seven to 
fifteen years) between an industrial boom and an industrial depres- 
sion, based on the theory that such booms and depressions recur at 
fairly regular intervals, the conditions in the intervening periods 
leading progressively or retrogressively from one to the other. 

[223] 



The causes of such recumng crises are obscure. "From the Mal- 
thusian theory of over-population, through Jevons' theory of sun 
spots, Hobson's theory of over-production due to excessive sav- 
ings, and the theory of psychological cycles, over-speculation, 
Tugan Baronowsky's theory of misdirected production down to 
the theory of under-constunption because of the extraction of 
surplus value, various explanations have been given by some eco- 
nomic writers only to be discarded by others. Socialists have 
designated industrial crises, with their necessary consequences, un- 
employment and distress, as the inevitable consequences of com- 
petitive industry." (See Cyclical Fluctuations.) 

Industrial Democracy. This phrase is now commonly ap- 
plied to almost any actual or imagined industrial arrangement in 
which the interests of the workers are served and their will expressed 
in the general conduct of industry — either relatively or absolutely. 
It may denote, at one extreme, complete workers' control or, 
at the other, merely some particular method of joint industrial regu- 
lation and adjustment — as, for example, the Leitch plan. Properly 
speaking, industrial democracy implies the joint sharing between 
workers and management of the direction and control of industry, 
no less than of its regulation. It implies that the worker shall 
have an equal voice with the management in determining the con- 
ditions and the terms under which they must work, and that they 
shall take an equal share of responsibility for the joint decisions 
arrived at. In this sense, industrial democracy is as yet almost 
wholly an ideal rather than an actuality. Some approach has been 
made by the avenue of trade unionism, and by the method of joint 
industrial councils; but industrial government is still a very long 
way from the essential principles of democracy. (See Industrial 
Self-Government.) 

Industrial Pemocrats. A name sometimes assumed by, or 
given to, advocates of syndicalism in Great Britain. 

Industrial Diseases. See Occupational Diseases. 

Industrial Education. Three distinct and separate forms 
of instruction, often confused in the public mind, may be defined 
under this heading, as follows: (i) Trade education, or the training 
of young persons for a specific trade or craft, in substitution for 
apprenticeship; (2) technical education, or the teaching of the 
sciences in their practical application to the material interests of 
man, for the purpose of developing scientific industrial specialists; 

[224] 



(3) manual training, or instruction in hand- work, with or without 
the use of tools, as part of a complete educational discipline. What is 
called VOCATIONAL EDUCATION may be either trade education or 
technical education, or it may be unrelated to either — as in the case 
of instruction for non-industrial vocations. The purpose of edu- 
cation in the broader sense need not and should not be lost in indus- 
trial education; but it is here a subordinate purpose. As a matter 
of fact, many courses in industrial education do include instruction 
in general subjects. Nevertheless, a distinction must be maintained 
between the various forms of industrial education and general work- 
ing-class EDUCATION of a non-vocational character. (See Trade 
Schools; Part-Time Schools; Conversion Training.) 

Industrial Employment Survey. The successful adjustment 
of labor supply and demand will often involve the migration of 
workers from one state to another. Realizing that "the Federal 
government is the only means by which can be secured sufficient 
uniformity of method and interchange of information as to accom- 
plish the desired results," the United States Employment Service 
began early in December, 1920, the organization of an industrial 
employment survey of the United States. For the purpose of this 
survey, the coimtry has been divided into nine districts, in accord- 
ance with the United States census, embracing at the beginning 65 
cities of leading industrial importance from which pay-roll data 
are secured, and 231 cities from which industrial employment in- 
formation is obtained. A district director is in charge of each 
district. In industrial centres, special agents secure actual pay-roll 
data. The totals of the information secured are telegraphed, in 
code, to the administrative offices in Washington, where the reports 
are analyzed and interpretations and tabulations made. It is 
planned to make semi-monthly publication of the statistical results 
of the survey. 

Industrial Engineering. See Scientific Management. 

Industrial Evolution. This term refers, in general, to the 
gradual development of the social organization for production and 
exchange, from medieval times to the present, and to the changing 
status of the individual laborer in relation to or as determined by 
that development. In the course of history, says Dr. Carl Biicher, 
*' mankind sets before itself ever higher economic aims and finds the 
means of attaining these in a division of the burden of labor which 
constantly extends until finally it embraces the whole people and 

[225] 



requires the services of all for all. ... It is the road traversed by 
mankind in passing from clanship to society, which, as far as we 
can see, ends in an ever-tightening social organization. On this 
road the means for satisfying the wants of the individual continu- 
ally grow in fulness and variety, and at the same time in dependence 
and complexity. The life and labor of every individual becomes 
more and more entwined with the life and labor of many others." 
The three principal stages in industrial evolution, considered in 
relation to economic organization as a whole, are usually known as 

(l) HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY, (2) TOWN ECONOMY, and (3) NATIONAL 

ECONOMY. With more particular reference to production alone, four 
stages are commonly differentiated: (i) The family or household 

SYSTEM, (2) the HANDICRAFT SYSTEM, (3) the DOMESTIC SYSTEM, 

and (4) the factory system. The changing status of the individual 
laborer in industrial history is ordinarily considered under three 
main headings: (i) Slavery, (2) serfdom, and (3) the wage 
SYSTEM. In a larger and more general sense, according to Arthur 
Shadwell, *'the essence of industrial evolution is not the substitution 
of the grand for the small industry, or even the supremacy of the 
machine, but something much larger. It is the mastery of nature 
in the service of man, and for its origin we must go back to the 
beginnings of science — to the search after knowledge which followed 
the revival of learning. The medigeval attempts to square the circle, 
find the philosopher's stone, and produce perpetual motion were 
the early gropings of the spirit which has produced the steam- 
engine, the dynamo, wireless telegraphy, the aeroplane, and syn- 
thetic rubber. The mastery of nature in the service of man is the 
one guiding purpose running through the whole story." (See 
Industrial Revolution.) 

Industrial Fatigue. See Fatigue. 

Industrial Hazard. As broadly defined by Dr. Royal Meeker, 
this term denotes "anything occurring within an industry which 
impairs the earning power of the worker," This definition includes 
industrial accidents, sickness growing out of occupations, and above 
all, unemployment. More commonly, however, the term refers spe- 
cifically to the risk of bodily injiuy to the worker inherent in modem 
industrial operations. According to E. H. Downey, "every mechan- 
ical employment has a predictable hazard; of a thousand men who 
climb to dizzy heights in erecting steel structures a certain ntimber 
will fall to death, and of a thousand girls who feed metal stiips 
into stamping machines a certain number will have their fingers 

[226I 



crushed. So regularly do such injuries occur that every machine- 
made commodity may be said to have a definite cost in human blood 
and tears — a life for so many tons of coal, a lacerated hand for so 
many laundered shirts." (See Safety First Movement; Hazardous 
Occupations; Health Hazards.) 

Industrial Health Work. The activities or services which 
may properly be considered as coming within the scope of this term 
are thus specified by Messrs. Tead and Metcalf : Preventive medi- 
cine; personal and social hygiene; factory sanitation and safety; 
emergency surgery and first aid ; laboratory tests and hospital care ; 
dental prophylaxis; mental hygiene; medical "follow-up" (periodic 
examinations); ear, eye, nose, and throat treatment, and clinics in 
special diseases. (See Industrial Medicine; Industrial Psychi- 
atry; Industrial Physiology; Industrial Safety; Occupational 
Diseases; Health Hazards; Fatigue Study; Company Doctor.) 

Industrial Housing and Transportation Bureau. This 
war-time agency of the United States Department of Labor 
was established in February, 19 18, to investigate the housing needs 
of industrial localities, to build houses for industrial workers engaged 
in war activities, and to provide for their transportation. In July, 
1918, under authority of an act of Congress, the United States 
Housing Corporation was formed and took over the work of the 
Bureau with the exception of certain minor matters. Since the 
armistice, the work of the organization has been mainly confined 
to completing work already begun, disposing of materials on hand, 
and adjusting claims. 

Industrial Hygiene. See Industrial Health Work; In- 
dustrial Physiology. 

Industrial Insurance. While social insurance in general 
and workmen's compensation in particular are sometimes thus 
designated, this term has more specific reference to a form of private 
commercial insurance under which members of the working class are 
insured for small amounts — the chief purpose being to provide for 
the expenses of death and burial. The premiums are collected 
weekly or monthly in a house-to-house round by agents of the com- 
panies. This form of insurance has asstimed tremendous propor- 
tions in Great Britain. 

Industrial Medicine. As a generic term, this has been 
defined as "the newer conception of the supervision of the health 

[227] 



of employees, the medical examination of applicants and of the old 
force, the prevention of disease and accidents by industrial hygiene 
and safety first, better medical and surgical treatment for the 
sick and injured, compensation and benefits, and the relation of 
this human maintenance work to other employees' service depart- 
ments." (See Industrial Health Work; Safety First Move- 
ment.) 

Industrial Organization in Russia. Under the Soviet 
regime, industrial undertakings fall generally into four main classes : 
(i) Those that have been organized and are being conducted by the 
present government, known as Soviet industries; (2) large private 
undertakings that have been taken over and are being conducted 
by the government, known as nationalized industries; (3) large 
private undertakings that were originally taken over by the govern- 
ment but have been leased back to their original owners at a nominal 
rental, and small private undertakings that have never been taken 
over by the State, known as private industries; (4) cooperative 
undertakings, owned and operated by the workers. All of these 
classes are subject to State control in varying degree, under the 
direction of the People's Commissariat of Commerce and Industry 
and the Supreme Council of Public Economy, two of the main 
executive divisions of the government. Each major industry is 
nationally organized into a State trust, which is managed by a board 
or "central" of nine members, representing in equal numbers the 
workers, the technical managers, and the Supreme Coimcil of Public 
Economy. Thus, there is a "Coal Central," a "Steel Central," a 
"Textile Central," etc., each directly correlated with the Supreme 
Council of Public Economy, and having charge in its own industry 
of the distribution of raw materials, placing of technical experts, 
regulation of output, distribution of product, control of finances, 
etc. (See Regional Economic Councils; Nationalization in 
Russia.) 

Industrial Partnership. This rather misleading and often 
inaccurate term is commonly applied to any arrangement under 
which the employees of an industrial or commercial enterpiise 
participate, in any degree, in the ownership or management of the 
enterprise. (See Labor Copartnership; Capital Sharing.) 

Industrial Physiology. A term sometimes used in designa- 
tion of "the sum of knowledge pertaining to the working of the 
human mechanism in industrial activity, and it thus includes psy- 

[228] 



chological phenomena as well as those more technically recognized 
as physiological." "Industrial physiology has two objects: First, 
the more purely scientific one of learning how the industrial worker 
actually performs his work and what the conditions are under which 
he can work most efficiently and can produce the largest output 
while maintaining his body in health and in the best working con- 
dition; and, secondly, the more practical object of establishing in 
the factories the conditions which conduce at the same time to the 
maximum output and the maintenance of the maximum power of 
the worker." (See Industrial Health Work.) 

Industrial Psychiatry. A branch of industrial health 
WORK which is concerned with the prevention of mental breakdowns 
by giving the worker a proper environment and removing causes 
of discontent, and treating such cases from an individual stand- 
point, as well as considering as psychiatric cases those persons 
ordinarily known by such unsympathetic names as ''kickers," 
"grouchers," "hoboes," etc. The term has been more concisely 
defined as the "mental hygiene of industry." 

Industrial Rehabilitation. See Vocational Rehabilita- 
tion. 

Industrial Rehabilitation Act. See Vocational Reha- 
bilitation. 

Industrial Relations Department. In many large industrial 
establishments, the study and promotion of satisfactory and equita- 
ble relations between employer and employees, as well as all matters 
that have to do in a large sense with the human factor in production, 
are assigned to a separate "industrial relations department" — also 
variously known as "personnel department," "mutual interest 
department," "human relations department," "employment de- 
partment," etc. The duties of such a department vary widely in 
different establishments, but in the main they are concerned with 
creating and maintaining morale, good will, loyalty, ^5^n^ de corps ^ 
and personal efficiency. Some establishments merely offer bonus 
and insurance schemes, emphasize safety, and follow commonsense 
leads in cultivating a cordial group relationship between labor and 
the management, to replace the old individual relationship between 
the laborer and "the boss." Others provide for visiting absentees, 
and furnish medical treatment, free nurses, better housing, lectures, 
club rooms, playgrounds, and cheap homes. A few have given labor 
a voice in determining some of the policies of management through 
16 [229] ' 



a SHOP COMMITTEE or sliop couticil. The official in charge of such a 
department is commonly known as a personnel manager, although 
other titles are used in different establishments. (See Personnel 
Administration; Human Engineering; Welfare Work.) 

Industrial Revolution. The transformation of modern so- 
ciety which accompanied the transition from handicraft to machine 
industry. "About the middle of the i8th century, or a little later," 
according to Dr. Arthur Shadwell, **this transformation began to 
assume a well-defined character, and entered on a course of rapid 
and continuous advance — at first in Great Britain and afterwards 
in other countries. Its efficient cause was a series of capital inven- 
tions and discoveries, which transformed many existing industries, 
and created still more new ones. Its most prominent features were 
the application of mechanical power and the development of ma- 
chinery, leading to the evolution of the * grand ' industry carried on 
in large establishments, and commonly called the factory system; 
an enormous increase of production, with cheapening of commodi- 
ties ; a corresponding expansion of markets and of sources of supply, 
fed and opened up by the development of transport; the concentra- 
tion of the population in centres convenient for production and dis- 
tribution, or, in other words, the growth and multiplication of 
manufacturing and trading towns, with a corresponding relative 
decline of the agricultural population — all involving great changes 
in the occupations of the people and in the conditions of life among 
them." The industrial revolution is merely one phase of the vast 
and complex process of industrial evolution, and it is well to 
remember that generalizations drawn from particular features of 
it have only a limited application. 

Industrial Safety. In the legal sense, probably as good a 
definition of this term as any is that contained in the Wisconsin 
state law: "The term 'safe' or 'safety' as applied to an employment 
or a place of emplo3TTLent shall mean such freedom from danger to 
the life, health or safety of employees or frequenters as the nature of 
the employment will reasonably permit." The investigations con- 
cerning industrial safety and sanitation made by the Federal Com- 
mission ON Industrial Relations resulted in the following con- 
clusions: "(i) Great progress has been made during recent years 
in promoting safety and sanitation in manufacturing, mining and 
transportation. (2) The progress has been most rapid in the direction 
of safeguarding workers from industrial accidents. (3) Progress in 
safety has been in part the result of continued agitation and educa- 

[230] 



tion, but has proceeded most rapidly and satisfactorily since the 
enactment of workmen's compensation laws which render unsafe 
working conditions expensive to the employer. (4) The movement 
has also been largely promoted by the formation of safety committees 
composed of officials and workmen, and by the creation of joint con- 
ferences of employers and employees to assist and advise State 
ofHcials in the administration of the law and in the formulation of 
safety rules. (5) The campaign for safety needs, however, to be 
greatly extended as rapidly as possible. The annual list of accidents, 
approximately 35,000 fatalities and 700,000 injuries involving dis- 
ability of over four weeks, can not be regarded complacently. From 
one-third to one-half of these accidents have been estimated by 
competent authorities to be preventable by proper safeguards, 
inspection and control. (6) The advance in the sanitation of work- 
shops has been less rapid, because not only are the dangers less ob- 
vious, but there is no financial liability for diseases or deaths occurring 
as the result of improper sanitation. Future progress in sanitation 
demands attention not only to cleanliness and ventilation, but to 
occupational diseases. (7) The most direct incentive for the pro- 
motion of sanitation would be the adoption of a proper system of 
sickness insurance. (See Industrial Safety Laws; Safety First 
Movement; Health Hazards; Hazardous Occupations; Occu- 
pational Diseases; Engineering Revision; Safety Strike.) 

Industrial Safety Laws. Legislation providing for proper 
machine guards, sanitary conditions in factories, fire-escapes, mine 
rescue appliances, automatic car couplers, and similar matters 
designed to safeguard the life, limbs, and health of industrial workers. 
In states which have adopted the industrial commission plan, the 
state legislature does not attempt to cover all these points in specific 
detailed legislation, but instead enacts a general provision requiring 
the employer to protect the life, safety, health, and welfare of em- 
ployees, and authorizing the commission to draw up administrative 
ORDERS specifying the details as to how this shall be accomplished. 
(See State Industrial Commission; Safety First Movement; 
Lead Laws; Prohibited Employments; Mine Inspection; Safety 
Appliance Act.) 

Industrial Self -Government. This phrase has no single or 
definite meaning. Used by a capitalist employer, it may denote 
the freedom of industry from State intervention and regulation. 
Used by a worker, it may denote either a relative form of industrial 
democracy or a complete measure of workers' control. Again, 

[231] 



it may be used by either employer or worker in designation of some ' 
particular form of shop committee system, employee represen- 
tation plan, etc. 

Industrial Truce. An agreement made between the British 
government and British trade union officials in 191 5, under the 
terms of which union labor waived many of its normal rules and 
restrictions (as for example, in the matter of dilution) for the sake 
of increased production during the war, with the understanding 
that employers' profits would be limited, that organized labor would 
be represented in the government, and that the trade union condi- 
tions thus waived would be automatically restored at the close of 
the war. The latter pledge was redeemed through the passing of 
the Restoration of Prewar Practices Act in August, 19 19. (See 
Shop Steward Movement.) 

Industrial Union. One of the two main structural types of 
trade union — the other being the craft union. Broadly and to 
some extent theoretically speaking, an industrial union comprises 
all the workers of an entire industry — all who cooperate in producing 
a common product or type of product, or in rendering a common 
service, skilled and unskilled workers alike; whereas the craft union 
consists as a rule of only skilled or semi-skilled workers engaged in 
one particular kind of work within an industry. But this pure type 
of industrial union is by no means common. A large proportion 
of what are ordinarily known as industrial unions belong, in fact, 
to the compound craft union type — being amalgamations of 
several related craft unions in one or several industries. Then, too, 
in actual practice industrial unionism tends largely toward that form 
of class unionism which consists in a separate grouping of skilled 
workers and unskilled workers. Thus, in this country, we have at 
one extreme the sort of exclusive industrial unionism found in the 
American Federation of Labor, consisting in the main of "the 
union of all the skilled crafts of a single industry, and not, except in 
rare cases, of all the workers in an industry"; and, at the other ex- 
treme, the industrial unionism of the Industrial Workers of the 
World, consisting almost wholly of unskilled ''casual" workers. 
Similarly, in England we find that the chief industrial unions are 
as a rule amalgamations of skilled craft unions, while the great 
mass of unskilled or semi-skilled workers are organized in separate 
general labor unions. But whether in its ''pure," its "compound 
craft," or its "class" form, the industrial union is rapidly taking 
precedence over the craft type of organization — in most Evuropean 

[ 232 ] 



countries, at any rate. It is, for one thing, the logical transition 
means to some form of workers' control or industrial democracy 
— ^which is the goal of the present-day labor movement. For im- 
mediate purposes, it is a far more formidable fighting organization 
than the craft union; and it is much less subject to internal and 
external dissensions within the labor movement. "The advocates 
of organization by industries maintain that the true community of 
interest exists between those who stand face to face with the same 
employers. The wages, hours, and other conditions of the fireman 
who tends the boiler at the coal mine, of the cooper who repairs the 
kegs of the brewery, of the driver who delivers the beer, can be most 
effectively promoted by their fellow-workmen who have a common 
employment with them at the mine or in the brewery, rather than by 
firemen or coopers or drivers whose work is tributary to quite other 
occupations. Though such a small minority in an industry be 
separately organized, and though it deny any allegiance to the or- 
ganization of the great body of workers in the industry, it is upon 
that body of workers that it must still depend for effective support 
in its demands. . . . From the standpoint of the employer there would 
seem to be a considerable advantage in dealing with a single organi- 
zation, controlling all the men in his establishment, rather than with 
half a dozen, any one of which might tie up the whole business in 
spite of any understanding which he might have with the others. . . . 
On the other hand, unity increases the strength of the workers, 
and a demand which is backed by a whole working force is less easy 
to resist than a demand which has the direct support of only a frac- 
tion." (See Industrial Unionism; Material Trade Union; Labor 
Union; Plant Union.) 

Industrial Unionism. The theory and practice of trade 
union organization along the lines of the actual structure of industry, 
without regard to separate crafts or occupations; the basis of or- 
ganization being the general "form of production" or the common 
service rendered, rather than any specialized kind of work performed. 
This theory is in itself neither revolutionary nor even radical, and 
it has been adopted by many conservative trade unions. But be- 
cause industrial unionism is generally considered an essential prelim- 
inary to, if not the permanent foundation for, any really effective 
form of workers* control or industrial democracy, it is often 
identified with various radical philosophies (in particular, syndical- 
ism) which look to the ultimate capture and control of the State by 
the workers But this form of industrial unionism should properly 

[233] 



be differentiated as revolutionary unionism. The term ''greater 
unionism" is sometimes used in a sense synonymous with industrial 
unionism. (See New Unionism; One Big Union; Employmental 
Unionism.) 

Industrial Unrest. Disregarding those spiritual or psycho- 
logical factors, common to normal htmian beings of whatever economic 
status, which are expressed in the universal desire and effort for better 
things, industrial unrest may be broadly defined as the condition 
of more or less acute dissatisfaction existing among the great mass of 
wage-earners in regard to what they consider gross inequalities and 
maladjustments in the present economic and social arrangements. 
According to the staff report of the Federal Co^imission on Indus- 
trial Relations, "the sources from which this unrest springs are, 
when stated in full detail, almost numberless. But upon careful 
analysis of their real character they will be found to group themselves 
almost without exception under four main sources which include all 
the others. These four are: (i) Unjust distribution of wealth and 
income. (2) Unemployment and denial of an opportunity to earn a 
living. (3) Denial of justice in the creation, in the adjudication, 
and in the administration of law. (4) Denial of the right and oppor- 
tunity to form effective organizations." A more thoroughgoing 
statement is that contained in the *' Trade Union Memorandum" 
attached to the report of the provisional joint committee of the 
British National Industrial Conference (19 19), as follows: 
"The fundamental causes of Labor unrest are to be found rather in 
the growing determination of Labor to challenge the whole existing 
structure of capitalist industry than in any of the more special 
and smaller grievances which come to the surface at any particular 
time. ... It is not enough merely to tinker with particular grievances 
or to endeavor to reconstruct the old system by slight adjustments 
to meet the new demands of Labor. It is essential to question the 
whole basis on which ova industry has been conducted in the past 
and to endeavor to find, in substitution for the motive of private 
gain, some other motive which mil serve better as the foundation 
of a democratic system. This motive can be no other than the 
motive of public service, which at present is seldom invoked save 
when the workers threaten to stop the process of production by a 
strike. The motive of public service should be the dominant motive 
throughout the whole industrial system, and the problem in industry 
at the present day is that of bringing home to every person engaged 
in industry the feeling that he is the servant, not of any particular 

[234] 



class or person, but of the community as a whole. This cannot be 
done so long as industry continues to be conducted for private profit, 
and the widest possible extension of public ownership and democratic 
control of industry is therefore the first necessary condition of the 
removal of industrial unrest." 

Industrial Workers of the World. This body, more com- 
monly known as the I. W. W., was organized at Chicago in 1905, 
as a merger of various labor groups that had long been hostile to the 
American Federation of Labor. These groups were (i) the 
Western Labor Union, formed in 1898 through the efforts of the 
Western Federation of Miners, and renamed in 1902 the American 
Labor Union; (2) a section of the Socialist Labor Party of North 
America; and (3) other radical working groups of minor importance. 
After an auspicious beginning, with a claimed membership of 100,000, 
it was not long before factional strife developed within the organiza- 
tion. In 1907 its strongest constituent group, the Western miners, 
withdrew, and in 1908 the remaining organization split into two 
factions: the political action or milder group, consisting mainly 
of the Socialist Labor Party element, formed what was at first known 
as the Detroit I. W. W. but is now called the Workers' Interna- 
tional Industrial Union; the remaining members, devoted to 
DIRECT ACTION, Constituted the Chicago group, which is much the 
more numerous and active, and represents what is known today as 
the I. W. W. In the preamble to its first constitution the I. W. W. 
declares that ''the working class and the employing class have 
nothing in common. ... It is the historic mission of the working class 
to do away with capitalism. ... A struggle must go on until the workers 
of the world organize as a class, take possession of the earth and 
the machinery of production, and abolish the wage system." Start- 
ing out on the plan of industrial unionism, uniting skilled and 
unskilled workers alike along the lines of capitalistic production, 
the I. W. W. soon shifted to a basis of class unionism and accepted 
as its specific function the organization of the great mass of unskilled 
workers alone — the nondescript "under dogs" of our economic sys- 
tem whom the aristocratic craft unions will as a rule have none of. 
According to Carleton Parker, "the I. W. W. is a union of unskilled 
workers in large part employed in agriculture and in the production 
of raw materials. While the I. W. W. appeared in the East at Law- 
rence, Paterson, and certain other places, at the height of strike 
activity, its normal habitat is in the upper middle West and the far 
West from British Columbia down into old Mexico." Membership 

[235] 



in the West is consistently of one type — migratory workers. About 
half are of American birth; the other half is largely made up of 
newer immigration from Southeastern Europe. Starting out with 
a definite scheme of organization, not altogether unlike that of the 
American Federation of Labor, the I. W. W. soon degenerated into 
''a loosely bound group of uncontrolled fighters." To quote Dr. 
Parker again: "It has in fact no formal politico-legal existence. 
Its treasury is merely the momentary accumulation of strike funds. 
Its numerous headquarters are the result of the energy of local 
secretaries. They are not places for executive direction of the union 
as much as gregarious centres where the lodging house inhabitant 
or the hobo with his blanket can find light, a stove, and compan- 
ionship. ... In times of strike and disorder the headquarters becomes 
the centre of the direct action propaganda. But when this is by, its 
character changes to the casuals' rest house." No accurate figures 
regarding the I. W. W.'s present membership are available, but 
various estimates range from 50,000 to 150,000. However, its 
significance does not lie in organization or numbers, but in its aspect 
as a social phenomenon and in its power of enlisting the sympathies 
of the lower classes of workers in times of crisis. The activities of 
the I. W. W. are by no means confined to the United States and 
Canada, but extend to most English-speaking countries — in par- 
ticular, Australia and the British colonies of South Africa. (See 
Free Speech Fights; Agricultural Workers' Organization; 
Sab-Cat; Bummery; Wobbly; Spittoon Philosophers; Stiff; 
Timber Wolf; Fruit Tramp; Scissorbill; Travelling Witnesses; 
One Big Union; Dual Unionism; Boring from Within; Mass 
Unionism; Pure and Simple Unionism; Mixed Local; Universal 
Label; Sabotage; Revolutionary Unionism; Criminal Syndical- 
ism Laws ; Unlawful Associations Act; Confederacion Regional 
Obrera Mexicana.) 

Industrialism or Industrial System. A general designation 

for the present stage or period of economic development, marked by 
large-scale production for private profit. The effects of indus- 
trialism are seen primarily in the growth of population and in changes 
of grouping by locality and occupation. Rural life yields to urban, 
and agricultural occupations to industrial and commercial. The 
development of the town is the chief outstanding featiu*e of indus- 
trialism ; it marks every industrial country. (See Industrial Revo- 
lution; Factory System; Localization of Industry; Wage 
Systeai.) 

[236I 



Industrialized Nationalization. As an outcome of the 
sittings of the Conseil Economique du Travail, the French 
CoNFfiDfiRATiON GfiNfiRALE DU Travail has recently sponsored a 
programme of industrial reform under the name of *'industralized 
nationalization," which represents a compromise between pure 
syndicalism (of which the C. G. T. has hitherto been the leading 
advocate) and guild socialism. As stimmarized in O'Brien's 
** Labor Organization," **this programme proposes that when any 
industry is nationalized it shall at once be handed over to be admin- 
istered by a council representative of three interests — producers, 
consumers, and the public. The producers of course consist of all 
the workmen in the industry ; the consumers include first the coopera- 
tive societies as representing the ordinary domestic constimer, and 
secondly the trade users and the public. Representatives are to be 
drawn, half from the technical and half from the administrative per- 
sonnel of the State services. One important feature of the scheme 
is that the nationalization of regional or even individual industries 
is contemplated, so that competition will remain. It is proposed that 
the profits of the industries should be divided into three parts; one 
part to pay interest on working capital and the amortization of the 
capital taken over, another part to provide houses and improved 
conditions of emplo3mient for the workers, and the other part to be 
applied to the development of the national resources." 

Industry. This term has been broadly defined as "the process 
by which the resources of Nature, are transformed through human 
effort into services and commodities available for use. " In a narrower 
sense, the word denotes a single specialized field or department 
of a country's industrial activity — such as the "steel industry," 
the "railway industry," the "mining industry," etc. The separate 
industries of the human race may be conveniently grouped thus: 
(i) Extractive, including agriculture, mining, limibering, etc.; (2) 
distributive, including commerce, wholesale and retail trade, trans- 
portation, communication, and all the media of exchange; (3) manu- 
facturing; (4) services and free incomes, including domestic servants, 
government officials, professional men and women, students, etc. 

Industry Federation. In England, a federation uniting all 
the trade unions of a single industry of national scope — as for ex- 
ample, the Miners' Federation, Such federations are som.etimes in 
actual effect amalgamations, their executives having power to act 
for the industry as a whole in respect to national issues. 

Infirmity Insurance. See Invalidity Insurance. 

[237I 



Initiation Fees. In common with nearly all other organiza- 
tions, trade unions require every new m.ember to pay a fixed sum of 
money at the time of joining the union. Initiation fees are, in 
practically all cases, charged and collected by local unions only; 
although the specific amount, or a minimum and maximum limit, 
may be prescribed in the constitution of the national union. The 
maximimi fee is sometimes thus fixed to restrict the tendency of 
local organizations, when they have a good local control of the trade, 
to make the initiation fee almost prohibitory, with the aim of increas- 
ing the amount of employment for those who are already members. 
The minimimi fee, as in the case of minimum membership dues, is 
often fixed to insure adequate support of the local treasuries. In some 
unions a part of each local initiation fee must be paid to the national 
treasury. Some unions make a distinction between Americans and 
foreigners, charging the latter a higher rate. The fee is sometimes 
lower for women than for men, when both are admitted to the union ; 
and the fees are also often reduced for helpers and half members. 
As a rule, members moving to another town are not required to pay 
an initiation fee when they join a new local of the same national union. 

Initiative and Referendum. One of the most important 
instruments in the government of national and international unions. 
Originally, according to docker's "Government of American Trade 
Unions," "the national trade unions elected officers and transacted 
all other business — executive, legislative and judicial — through the 
NATIONAL CONVENTION of delegates. A nimaber of national unions 
still continue to vest such unlimited, wide-reaching powers in this 
representative assem_bly, but the great majority of them have limited 
its power to a greater or less extent by the use of the initiative and 
referendum. The trade unions submit a far wider variety of business 
to popular vote than do political governments. By this method they 
elect ofhcers, adopt rules, declare strikes, levy assessments, render 
judicial decisions, and transact other business. In a few organiza- 
tions the convention has been abolished, and all questions are deter- 
mined by the vote of the members. The right of popular initiative 
exists in American trade unions only in a modified sense. A member, 
for example, may propose any amendment to the international 
constitution at a meeting of his local union, but his proposal must 
be endorsed by at least a majority of the members in his own branch, 
must be signed by the local officers, and must have the seal of the 
subordinate union attached before it can be recognized at head- 
quarters. Then it must be endorsed by the general executive 

[238] 



BOARD or by a certain ntunber of other branches before it can be 
submitted to popular vote. . . . The organs of discussion and dehb- 
eration are the trade journal, special circulars, and the local mass 
meetings. A measure proposed by a local union is stated in the 
jotunal or in a circular to each branch ; then the question is discussed 
in the local meetings and perhaps in the columns of the journal. 
As a rule, the members vote on matters relating to the national 
organization at a regular meeting of the subordinate union, often 
without secrecy, in the same way as on piu-ely local measures." In 
the great majority of American unions, the initiative and referendimi 
are used chiefly to supplement the work of the national convention, 
between the sessions of that body. In Great Britain, however, the 
tendency has been to abolish the national convention, and to transact 
all important business by popular vote. (See Trade Union Govern- 
ment — National; Strike Vote.) 

Injunction. With specific reference to labor affairs this is, 
in its usual form, a court writ prohibiting workers or the leaders 
of their organizations from performing certain specific acts — most 
commonly those which are considered essential to the success of a 
strike or boycott. The violation of such a writ involves simomary 
punishment by fine or imprisonment or both, for contempt of court. 
The injunction as an anti-labor weapon first came into marked 
prominence during the great Pullman strike of 1894 in Chicago; 
and since then it has been resorted to with ever-increasing frequency 
in industrial disputes. It has even been used to prohibit union officers 
from advising or ordering workmen to go on strike, or from distribut- 
ing STRIKE PAY — as in the notable injunction secured by the Federal 
government under the Lever Act during the bituminous coal-mine 
dispute of 19 1 9. Not labor leaders only, but many impartial jurists 
of high rank, have protested against the growing use of the injunc- 
tion. Their objections are thus summarized in the Report of the 
Federal Industrial Commission: "One serious ground of objection 
is that ordinarily not sufficient opportunity for hearing is given before 
the injunction is issued. Judges may issue injunctions either in open 
court or in chambers, and a temporary injunction may be granted 
with no notice whatever to those affected by it. Before an injunction 
is made permanent an opportunity for hearing is given, but in many 
instances the hearing is a considerable length of time after the pre- 
liminary injunction has been granted, and the object of the restraint 
may already have been effected. Of course, where an injunction is 
issued against unknown defendants, or against all persons in general, 

[239] 



as sometimes happens, no possible opportunity can be given to all 
those affected to put in an appearance. Complaint is made especially 
that the injunction has in many instances been directed against the 
commission of acts which are held by the courts to be in themselves 
criminal, and that it has thus taken away the right of trial by jury 
from those resorting to such acts. In almost inmmierable cases 
injunctions have been issued prohibiting boycotts, intimidation, 
violence, picketing, and other practices which the courts regularly 
treat as ground not merely for civil damages, but for criminal prose- 
cution. . . . Some of those who oppose the extended use of the injunc- 
tion are inclined to admit the validity of its occasional use to protect 
the property rights of a private individual, even against acts which 
are criminal, but they assert that in many cases the courts have con- 
sidered the public injin-y rather than the injury to a single individual 
as the chief ground for issuing the injunction. Where this is the 
case, the injunction, according to these writers, adds nothing to the 
force of the ordinary criminal law. The only penalty which it can 
threaten is fine or imprisonment of the same nature as that which 
follows criminal prosecution. The fact that the punisliment for 
violation of injunction may be inflicted somewhat more promptly, 
without the prolongation of a trial, is, it is maintained, no justifica- 
tion for its use. The fundamental object in the use of the injunction, 
in the opinion of such legal writers, as well as in the opinion of 
workingmen generally, is to make punishment more siu'e by avoiding 
trial by a jury, which might perhaps be influenced by sympathy 
or class feeling in favor of the defendant. It has always been the 
principle of English and American criminal law that every man is 
entitled to a fair trial by a jury of his peers. The simimary character 
of hearings before judges regarding violation of injunctions, giving 
less opportunity to the defendant to present his case fully, is also 
complained of, as well as the absence of the right of appeal. . . . 
Objection has also been raised by workingmen against the issue of 
injunctions by the Federal courts. Many labor cases, some involving 
injunctions and others not, have indeed in recent years been brought 
before these courts. Often such cases have been connected with 
interstate commerce, but in other cases the ground on which the 
Federal courts have claimed jiuisdiction is apparently the fact that 
the litigants are citizens of different states. Workingmen often 
complain that the Federal courts are more disposed to favor capital 
and its interests than the State courts. Legal writers have also 
sometimes questioned the right of the Federal courts to issue injunc- 
tions regarding labor disputes as freely as they do." The injunction 

[240] 



plays but a small part in the labor affairs of foreign countries, as 
compared with the United States. (See Blanket Injunction; 
Mandatory Injunction; Government by Injunction; Clayton 
Act; Debs Case; Buck Stove and Range Case; Duplex Printing 
Press Case.) 

Inside Men. See Under-Cover Men. 

Inside Shop, Outside Shop. As ordinarily used, these 
terms have reference to a peculiar system of manufacturing that 
prevails in the American clothing trade. The system is thus ex- 
plained in Commons's "Trade Unionism and Labor Problems": 
"The term 'manufacturer' in the clothing trade has a peculiar 
significance. It means the wholesale merchant, or warehouseman. 
The exact designation would be 'merchant manufacturer.' Such 
a manufacttirer usually has an 'inside shop' and several 'outside 
shops.' The inside shop is usually on the manufacturer's own prem- 
ises, and includes the cutters who cut the cloth for the contractors, 
the examiners who inspect the garments on their return, and the 
'bushelmen' who repair and reshape the garments if necessary. 
The ' outside shops ' are the shops of contractors who take the goods 
out from the manufacturer for stitching and finishing. If the manu- 
facturer does his own work directly under a superintendent or 
foreman, instead of indirectly through a contractor, this shop also 
is known as an 'inside shop.' Workmen employed by a contractor 
often speak of themselves as employed by the manufacturer who 
ftunishes the work to the contractor. Since the manufacturer sets 
the contract price, it might almost be said that the contractor is 
really the manufacturer's foreman, who takes the responsibility of 
finding help, doing the work, and making such wages of manage- 
ment as he can at the price set by the manufacturer." (See Contract 
System in the Garment Trades; Sweating System.) 

Inside Union. See Company Union. 

Instinct of Workmanship. Classed by Thorstein Veblen 
as a native disposition, this instinct is the tendency to do a job in a 
painstaking and workmanlike manner, without respect to the 
attractions of any rewards outside the satisfaction of the "creative 
impulse." 

Instruction Card System. In nearly all plants operated 
under scientific management, the different shop processes are 
carefully formulated and standardized by a special "planning de- 

[ 241 ] 



partment" or "routing department," which then supplies the 
workers with detailed instruction cards, usually listing the elementary 
operations in their proper sequence, v/ith the minimum time allowed 
for each, and containing directions as to speeds, tools, etc. These 
cards cover whatever information is required for the particular work 
in hand, and are supposed to be followed explicitly by the individual 
workers. 

Insurance Feature of Trade Unionism. See Mutual 
Insurance. 

Integration of Industry. See Large-Scale Production. 

Intellectual Proletariat. A term sometimes used in desig- 
nation of the professional classes — writers, teachers, physicians, 
lawyers, architects, electrical and mechanical engineers, members 
of highly technical trades, administrative forces in industries, and 
national or municipal employees. These persons may be living 
on salaries instead of wages, and enjoying a social position above 
that of the wage- worker; but it is argued that they belong never- 
theless to the PROLETARIAT, because their incomes are the result of 
their own exertions, and are not derived from unearned increment 
or capitalistic exploitation. (See Salariat; Middle Class.) 

Intellectuals. As used in connection with the working- 
class and socialist movements, this term denotes those men and 
women who, although taking a more or less prominent part in the 
movements, are not manual workers or wage-earners. They may be 
capitalists, philanthropists, philosophers, professional workers, or 
even ex-wage-eamers ; but however devoted to the cause of the 
working-class, they themselves are not for the time being members 
of that class. The intellectuals are much more closely identified with, 
and play a more prominent part in, the labor and socialist movements 
of Europe than of America. 

Intelligence Offices. Privately-conducted employment bu- 
reaus, subsisting as a rule on fees paid by the workers, are usually 
so called in the United States. 

Interchange of Labor. This phrase is used by the famous 
German engineering expert. Dr. Walther Rathenau, in designation 
of his solution for what he considers the basic social evil of today — 
"the soul-crushing mechanism of modern industry." The phrase is 
defined by Dr. Rathenau as follows: "By the principle of Inter- 
change of Labor it is required that every employee engaged in 

[242 ] 



mechanical work can claim to do a portion of his day's work in 
intellectual employment; and that every brain worker shall be 
obliged to devote a portion of his day to physical labor. . . . The 
essence of the Interchange of Labor will consist in this: that while 
the distinction between physical and intellectual work will still 
exist, there will be no distinction between a physical and an intel- 
lectual calling." 

Inter -Church Steel Report. Soon after the collapse of the 
\ strike against the United States Steel Corporation in 19 19, the 
Inter-Church World Movement appointed an impartial commission 
to inquire into the causes of the strike and the general conditions 
prevailing in the steel industry. After five months' work, the 
commission adopted a unanimous report in March, 1920, but this 
report was not made public until the end of July. According to 
the report, the number of steel employees who are working the 
TWELVE-HOUR DAY is 69,000. The number of those who receive the 
lowest rate of pay — ^under $1,466 a year — is 70,000. The investi- 
gators found that the ultimate control of the plants was vested in 
a small group of financiers whose relation to the producing force 
was remote. The annual earnings of more than one-third of all pro- 
ductive iron and steel workers of the Steel Corporation were, and 
for years had been, below the level set by the government experts 
as the minimum standard of subsistence for families of five. 
Further, ''blacklists were used, workmen were discharged for 
union affiliation, 'under-cover men' and 'labor detectives' were 
employed. In Western Pennsylvania the civil rights of free speech 
and free assembly were abrogated without just cause. Personal 
rights of strikers were violated by the State Constabulary and 
Sheriff's deputies." "The organizing campaign of the workers 
and the strike were for the purpose of forcing a conference in an 
industry where no means of conference existed." "Charges of 
bolshevism or of industrial radicalism in the conduct of the strike 
were without foundation." The chief reason for the failure of the 
strike was the size of the Steel Corporation. The causes of the strike 
lay in grievances which gave the workers just cause for complaint 
and for action. The report recommends a commission, set up by 
the Federal government, to inaugurate conferences between the 
Steel Corporation and its employees for the elimination of the twelve- 
hour day and the seven-day week and for the readjustment of wage 
rates. As yet no such commission has been set up, nor has any action 
been taken to prevent the otherwise inevitable recurrence of similar 
labor troubles in the steel industry. 

[243I 



Intercollegiate Socialist Society. Organized in New York 
City in 1905 as a purely educational agency, unaffiliated with any 
political party, "for the purpose of promoting an intelligent interest 
in SOCIALISM among college men and women, graduates and under- 
graduates." The society has established chapters for the study of 
socialism in many colleges and centres of population. It conducts 
a magazine, send lecturers to colleges, organizes conferences and 
conventions, publishes pamphlets, etc. 

Intercontinental Union. See Trade Union. 

Interim Industrial Reconstruction Committees. Joint 
bodies, consisting of representatives of employers' associations and 
trade unions in equal number, formed since the armistice by the 
British Ministry of Reconstruction, in association with the Board of 
Trade and the Ministry of Labor. A committee is set up for each 
industry in which, owing to various reasons, the formation of joint 
INDUSTRIAL COUNCILS Under the Whitley plan has been delayed. 
The committees are intended to exercise a large initiative in devising 
means by which the transition from war to peace conditions may be 
most smoothly effected, and the way opened to the rapid restoration 
of industrial enterprise. As soon as the trade or industry is sufficiently 
well organized, the purpose is to replace the interim industrial com- 
mittee with permanent joint industrial councils. 

International, (i) The international socialist-labor organiza- 
tion described in the entry, Internationale. (2) A term often 
applied to the whole body or central governing authority of an 
American trade union. (See National or International Union.) 

International Association for Labor Legislation. Organ- 
ized in 1900, as "a bond of union to those who, in the different in- 
dustrial countries, believe in the necessity of protective labor legis- 
lation." Through its central organization at Basle, Switzerland, 
through its international biennial conferences, and through its 
affiliated "national sections" (of which there were fifteen in 1920), 
the Association has carried on a most important work in the collec- 
tion and publication of the labor laws of all countries, in the investi- 
gation of industrial conditions and the study of industrial problems, 
and in the formulation and promotion of legislation based on such 
investigation and study. The Association has been reorganized since 
the formation of the International Labor Organization under 
the League of Nations, which in a sense takes over the Association's 
main work. Its present objects are stated to be: (i) To promote 

[244] 



the ratification, legal enactment, and enforcement of the draft 
conventions and recommendations adopted by the General Labor 
Conferences of the League of Nations; (2) to use its influence 
with reference to the subjects on the agenda of these conferences; 
and (3) to collect information, conduct investigation, and publish 
memoranda on questions concerning international labor. Its Amer- 
ican ''section," the American Association for Labor Legislation, 
has been a factor of large importance in the investigation, promotion, 
and enforcement of ameliorative labor laws in the United States. 

International Congress of Working Women. An important 
gathering of representative working women from nineteen countries, 
called by the National Women's Trade Union League of America, 
to consider those portions of the Versailles treaty relating to women 
and children. The Congress was held at Washington, D. C, Oct. 28- 
Nov. 6, 1 919, simultaneously with the early sessions of the first 
General Labor Conference of the League of Nations, which 
contained no women delegates. Important papers were read, reso- 
lutions adopted, a provisional committee elected for the purpose of 
calling another Congress, and arrangements made for an international 
business office in the United States. 

International Cooperative Alliance. A federation of the 
principal national cooperative societies in all countries, established 
in 1895. The aims and purposes of the Alliance are as follows: " (i) 
The ascertaining and propaganda of cooperative principles and 
methods; (2) the promotion of cooperation in all countries; (3) 
the keeping up of friendly relations between the members of the 
Alliance; (4) the collection and unification of cooperative statistics; 
(5) the provision of information and the encouragement of studies 
concerning cooperation; (6) the promotion of trading relations be- 
tween the cooperative organizations of the various countries." 
Except during the war, Congresses of the Alliance have been held 
every two or three years. According to recent figures, the Alliance 
represents twenty-four national units, which in turn represent about 
130,000 cooperative societies, with some twenty million family 
members. 

International Council of Trade and Industrial Unions. 

Organized at the second congress of the Communist Internationale, 
held at Moscow in July, 1920, as "a militant international committee 
for the reorganization of the trade union movement" working in 
conjunction with the executive committee of the third (Communist) 
17 [ 245 ] 



Internationale. The specific aims and objects of the organization, 
as stated in its "provisional rules," are as follows: "(i) To carry on 
an insistent and continuous propaganda for the ideas of the revolu- 
tionary CLASS STRUGGLE, social revolution, dictatorship of the 
PROLETARIAT and mass revolutionary action with the object of 
destroying the capitalist system and the bourgeois State. (2) To 
fight against the disease of class cooperation which is weakening the 
labor movement, and against the hope that a peaceful transition 
from capitalism is possible. (3) To unite all the revolutionary ele- 
ments in the world trade union movement and to conduct a deter- 
mined struggle against the International Labor Organization 
of the League of Nations and against the programme and tactics 
of the International Federation of Trade Unions in Amster- 
dam. (4) To take the initiative in organizing an international 
campaign on the outstanding facts of the class struggle and organize 
the collection of funds for the support of strikes and great conflicts, 
etc. (5) To collect all material concerning the international labor 
movement and to keep all the organizations affiliated to the Inter- 
national Council of Trade Unions informed as to the movement in 
other countries. (6) To publish books, leaflets, pamphlets affecting 
the international movement." The International Council is composed 
of representatives of Russia, Italy, Spain, Jugo-Slavia, Bulgaria, 
France, Georgia, one representative for each country and one dele- 
gate for each general national centre which belongs to the Interna- 
tional Council of Trade Unions. The Council also includes a repre- 
sentative of the Executive Council of the Communist Internationale. 
The Council also elects an Executive Bureau of three persons, includ- 
ing a general secretar}^ and a delegate to the executive of the Com- 
munist Internationale. Only those trade unions or minorities of 
trade unions ' ' that conduct a revolutionary struggle in their country 
and recognize proletarian dictatorship" are entitled to representa- 
tion at the international conferences called by the Council. Tem- 
porary headquarters have been established at Moscow. The 
Council is often referred to as the "Red" or "Moscow" Trade Union 
Internationale. (See International Trade Unionism.) 

International Federation of Labor. See International 
Federation op Trade Unions. 

International Federation of Trade Unions. Organized at 
Copenhagen in 1901, as the International Trade Union Secretariat, 
this was for many years merely an international centre for the col- 
lection and publication of statistics, exchange of information and 

[246] 



appeals, promotion of labor legislation, ^etc. Permanent head- 
quarters were maintained in Berlin, and an international conference 
was held every two years. The title of the organization was changed 
to its present form in 19 13. After its almost complete disruption 
during the world war, the Federation was reconstituted at an inter- 
national trade union conference held at Amsterdam in July, 19 19, 
delegates being present from fotirteen countries (including Germany 
and Austria), representing about 18,000,000 trade union members. 
The objects of the reconstituted Federation are: '\i) The promotion 
of the interests and endeavors of the organizations affiliated on a 
national and international basis. (2) The promotion of the trade 
union movement, both national and international, in the countries 
not affiliated. (3) The promotion of combined action on all questions 
of mutual trade union interest. (4) The prevention of international 
blacklegging. (5) The provision of funds for the promotion and 
furtherance of the foregoing objects, and such other trade union 
objects as may from time to time be incorporated in the rules." 
Permanent headquarters were established in Amsterdam. The 
Federation consists of *'the national and trade union centres of those 
countries which are organized on a trade union basis," only one 
*' national centre" from each country being admitted. Each affili- 
ated body is entitled to send one delegate to the biennial confer- 
ence at the expense of the Federation, and one or more additional 
delegates at its own expense; and each affiliated body has one vote 
for every 250,000 of its members or fraction thereof. The expenses 
of the Federation are met by a per capita tax of one-half cent a year 
for each member of an affiliated body. Management of the organi- 
zation is vested in a permanent central bureau of five officers (known 
as the International Trade Union Secretariat) meeting monthly, a 
management committee consisting of the bureau and ten represen- 
tatives of the affiliated countries meeting twice a year, and the 
biennial conference. In addition to the inclusion of trade union 
action in its reconstituted policy, the Federation has recently adopted 
resolutions favoring socialization and the international control 
and distribution of raw materials, and "international mass action 
in the assault on reaction, in declaring war against war and for the 
realization of a new social system." These radical tendencies proved 
too much for the American Federation of Labor, which had 
played a prominent part in reconstituting the International Feder- 
ation, and it definitely withdrew its affiliation in the autimm of 
1920. To distinguish it from the international socialist organiza- 
tion, the International Federation is often called the Trade Union 

[247] 



Internationale, or (since the formation of a rival body in Moscow) 
the Amsterdam Trade Union Internationale. Notwithstanding the 
defection of the United States and Russian sections, 24,000,000 
trade unionists were represented at a special conference of the 
International Federation of Trade Unions in November, 1920. 
(See International Trade Unionism; Boycott.) 

International Labor Conferences. See General Labor 
Conferences of the League of Nations. 

International Labor Office. The Treaty of Versailles pro- 
vides that such an office shall be established at the seat of the Lsague 
of Nations (Geneva), forming with the "General Conference of 
Representatives of the Members" the permanent International 
Labor Organization of the League. ''The functions of the Interna- 
tional Labor Office shall include the collection and distribution of 
information on all subjects relating to the international adjustment 
of conditions of industrial life and labor, and particularly the ex- 
amination of subjects which it is proposed to bring before the Con- 
ference with a view to the conclusion of international conventions, 
and the conduct of such special investigations as may be ordered 
by the Conference. ... It will edit and publish in French and English 
and in such other languages as the Governing Body may think 
desirable, a periodical paper dealing with problems of industry and 
employment of international interest." The Governing Body which 
controls the Office is composed as follows: "Twelve persons repre- 
senting the governments; six persons elected by the delegates to the 
Conference representing the employers; six persons elected by the 
delegates to the Conference representing the workers. Of the twelve 
persons representing the governments eight shall be nominated by 
the members [of the League] which are of the chief industrial im- 
portance, and four shall be nominated by the members selected 
for the purpose by the government delegates to the Conference, 
excluding the delegates of the eight members mentioned above. 
Any question as to which are the members of the chief industrial 
importance shall be decided by the Council of the League of Nations." 
Term of office is three years, and the method of filling vacancies is 
determined by the Governing Body subject to the approval of the 
Conference. In addition, it is provided that "there shall be a director 
of the International Labor Office, who shall be appointed by the 
Governing Body, and, subject to the instructions of the Governing 
Body, shall be responsible for the efficient conduct of the Office 
and for such other duties as may be assigned to him." The work of 

[248] 



the Office has been separated into two main divisions, designated 
the Scientific Division and the Diplomatic Division respectively. 
The Scientific Division is responsible for the collection, compila- 
tion, and dissemination of information of international interest or 
importance about industrial and labor conditions in all countries. 
The main function of the Diplomatic Division is to conduct the formal 
official correspondence with governments, and to direct the relation- 
ships of the Office with the different members of the International 
Labor Organization. In addition to these two Divisions, eight 
"Technical Services" have been created for the purpose of advising 
the Director of the Office on certain important matters, and to assist 
the two Divisions in preparing for conferences and making reports 
and special studies. These Technical Services have to do with the 
following subjects: (i) Emigration and unemployment; (2) agri- 
culture; (3) Russia; (4) Industrial hygiene; (5) cooperation; (6) 
maritime affairs; (7) social insurance; (8) production. As the 
work of the Office progresses, other services will be added from time 
to time. 

International Labor Organization. The first clause of 
Article 23 of the Covenant of the League of Nations declares that 
the members of the League ''will endeavor to secure and maintain 
fair and humane conditions of labor for men, women, and children, 
both in their own countries and in all countries to which their com- 
mercial and industrial relations extend, and for that purpose will 
establish and maintain the necessary international organizations." 
In accordance with this provision, the Treaty of Versailles creates 
a permanent International Labor Organization to promote the wel- 
fare of international labor, consisting of (i) a General Conference of 
•Representatives of the Members, and (2) an International Labor 
Office. Permanent headquarters of the organization are established 
at Geneva, Switzerland, — the seat of the League. It is provided 
-that "the original members of the League of Nations shall be the 
original members of this organization, and hereafter membership 
of the League of Nations shall carry with it membership of the said 
organization," As summarized by Albert Thomas, Director of the 
International Labor Office, two main tasks were entrusted to this 
organization. "The first was to establish everywhere htmiane con- 
ditions of labor; to institute and apply a system of International 
Labor Legislation, subject to reservations imposed by the sovereignty 
of each State and the conditions prevailing therein. All the con- 
tracting States, inspired both by considerations of humanity and by 

[249] 



fear of unfair competition, undertook to secure better and, as far as 
possible, equal conditions for all the workers of the world by the adop- 
tion of uniform Draft Conventions or Recommendations, Precise 
constitutional rules were established. The texts of the Draft Con- 
ventions and Recommendations are settled by the General Conference, 
which meets at least once a year. The International Labor Office, 
under the direction of its Governing Body, prepares the Agenda for 
the meetings of the Conference, corresponds with Governments 
with regard to the ratification by each State of the Conventions 
adopted and will eventually follow up their application. For the 
purpose it may organize enquiries and undertake inspection and, 
where necessary, may have recourse to its sanctions." (See General 
Labor Conference of the League of Nations; Labor Platform 
OF THE League of Nations ; International Association for Labor 
Legislation.) 

International League of Young Communists. See Young 

Communist Internationale. 

International Socialism. See Internationale. 

International Socialist Bureau. Established 1900, as the 
permanent central organization of the second Internationale. 
Its functions are to carry out the decisions of the International 
Socialist Congress, held ordinarily every second or third year; 
to convene special Congresses in cases of emergency ; and to maintain 
international archives for socialist literature and documents. The 
Bureau consists of two representatives from each of the adhering 
countries elected by the national sections of the Congress. The 
members of the Interparliamentary Commission are at the same 
time alternate delegates to the Bureau and have the right to take 
part in its meetings. The Bureau has a permanent secretary whose 
duty it is to obtain and compile required information, to report on 
the state of the socialist movement, to maintain a library, and to 
publish studies on the more important socialist problems. The per- 
manent secretary, a president, and two other Belgian members 
make up the executive commission of the Bureau. Headquarters 
are maintained in Brussels, and expenses are met by contributions 
of the adhering national sections. 

International Socialist Congresses. The periodic confer 
ences which form the chief activity of the Internationale. The 
following regulations in regard to admission were adopted at the 
: Paris Congress of 1900: "Those admitted to the International 

[250] 



Socialist Congresses are (i) all associations which adhere to the 
essential principles of Socialism: Socialization of the means of 
production and exchange, international union and action of the work- 
ers, conquest of public powers by the proletariat, organized as 
a class party; (2) all the labor organizations which accept the prin- 
ciples of CLASS STRUGGLE and recognize the necessity of political 
action (legislative and parliamentary) but do not participate directly 
in the political movement." Under the first Internationale (1866- 
1872) six Congresses were held. Up to the outbreak of war in 19 14, 
the second Internationale held nine Congresses. (See International 
Socialist Bureau.) 

International Trade Union Secretariat. See International 
Federation op Trade Unions; International Trade Unionism. 

International Trade Unionism. As a distinct and separate 
movement, international trade unionism developed somewhat more 
tardily than the international political (socialist) labor movement, 
partly because it was at first incorporated with the political move- 
ment, and partly because of the general prevalence of laws against 
organization which were in force in most European countries until 
well into the 19th century. Of recent years, approximately since 
1900, international trade unionism and the international political 
labor movement have formally maintained separate organizations. 
Yet it is true that in many countries the leaders are the same in both 
groups, and the political theories of the members of both groups 
are, on the whole, identical. Three main aspects of the international 
trade union movement, in its non-political character, should be 
distinguished. There are, first, some thirty or more separate inter- 
national trade or occupational federations — the miners, metal work- 
ers, printers, textile workers, transport workers, farm workers, 
seamen, etc. — the central offices or bureaus of which are commonly 
known as ** International Trade Union Secretariats." The earliest 
and largest of these, the International Miners' Federation, was 
founded in 1890, The main functions of such organizations before 
the war were the holding of periodic conferences and (through their 
respective Secretariats) the collection of trade union statistics, 
etc. Since the war, however, they have become much more active 
and militant. A second phase of international trada unionism is 
represented by the International Federation of Trade Unions, 
with which are affiliated the leading national federations of labor and 
national trade federations in various countries. Since the war this 
organization also has changed from a mild secretarial and debating 

[251] I 



agency to a somewhat aggressive organ of mass action and social- ' 
istic agitation. The third and most recent phase consists in the 
International Council of Trade and Industrial Unions, a 
federation of revolutionary trade unions and labor groups in variou,s 
countries, working in conjunction with the Communist Interna- 
tionale and frankly devoted to extremist methods in the war 
against capitalism. 

International Union. In the American labor movement, 
there is little if any real distinction between the "national" and the 
** international" union as types of labor organization; although as 
a rule the "international" has local units in Canada and perhaps in 
Mexico, while as a rule the "national" has not. At the best, the 
American "international" is commonly only a "continental" union. 
Outside America, the term "international union" is more properly 
applied to either (i) an organization, such as the Amalgamated 
Society of Engineers, which has branches scattered quite generally 
throughout the English-speaking world; or (2) an organization, such 
as the International Miners' Federation, which has affiliations in 
practically every important country of the world. (See Trade 
Union; National or International Union.) 

International Workingmen's Association. See Interna- 
tionale. 

International Working Union of Socialist Parties. Be- 
tween the right wing of the international socialist movement, as 
represented by the second Internationale, and the left wing, as 
represented by the third, stands the so-called centre, which includes 
some of the most influential groups and leaders in the present-day 
movement. They have withdrawn from the second Internationale, 
which they consider too reactionary and too stained with war com- 
promises; but they still hold aloof from the third, as swinging too 
violently in the opposite direction. At a Congress held at Vienna 
in February, 192 1, these centrist groups organized into a somewhat 
temporary "Working Union," membership being open to all parties 
which aim at "realizing Socialism by the conquest of political and 
economic power along the lines of the revolutionary class struggle," 
and which belong to "neither of the party alliances calling themselves 
the 'Second' or the 'Third' Internationale." The British Independ- 
ent Labor Party is a leading member of this "Working Union," 
which is variously referred to as the "two and a half," the "fourth," 
the "pink," and the "Vienna" Internationale. 

[252] 



Internationale or International. The famous organization 
of international socialist-labor activities commonly known as ''the 
Internationale" or "the Workers' Internationale" (in both cases 
often spelt without the final e) was founded at London in 1864 as the 
International Workingmen's Association. Its founders were British 
trade unionists and a number of political refugees from various con- 
tinental countries. The original constitution and "declaration of 
principles" were drafted by Karl Marx. At its first Congress, held 
at Geneva in 1866, delegates were present from England, France, 
and Switzerland only. But it was not long before nearly all important 
countries were represented in the membership, and the influence of 
the organization in international socialist-labor affairs became great. 
Six Congresses were held during the period 1866-18 72. The defeat 
of the Paris Commune, which the Internationale had fervently sup- 
ported, and an internal conflict between the Marxian socialists and 
the Bakunin anarchists, led to the disruption of the organization, 
and it was formally dissolved at a conference held in 1876 at Phila- 
delphia. Its successor, the second Internationale, grew out of two 
separate Congresses held by reformist and revolutionary socialists 
at Paris in 1889. At the Brussels Congress two years later the two 
sections united. Seven Congresses were held thereafter up to the 
outbreak of the world war. At the Paris Congress of 1900 there was 
created a central administrative office, the International Socialist 
Bureau. The outbreak of war in 19 14, and the division of socialist- 
labor bodies throughout Europe into pro-war and anti-war groups, 
hopelessly disrupted the second Internationale for nearly five years. 
It was finally reconstructed in greatly weakened form by the mod- 
erate elements among British and continental socialists, at a confer- 
ence held in Berne, Switzerland, in February, 1919. In March of 
the same year the radical or left-wing groups of the socialist-labor 
movement met at Moscow, and under the leadership of the Russian 
Communist Party organized the third or Communist Internation- 
ale. There are thus two rival "Internationales" in the field at the 
present time, representing respectively the right-wing and the left- 
wing sections of the socialist-labor movement, with the centrist 
elements separately grouped in a more or less temporary organiza- 
tion known as the International Working Union of Socialist 
Parties. Between these rival bodies a bitter struggle is in progress 
— a struggle marked by continual shift and change, as one element 
or another in one of the bodies goes over to a rival camp. The 
ultimate alignment of forces is as yet impossible to discern. The 
second Internationale claims to represent about fourteen million 

[253] 



socialists and trade unionists throughout the world. The tide is 
still running too swiftly to permit of any accurate estimate of the 
third Internationale's present numerical strength. But with its 
recent conquest of the German Independent Socialists and the French . 
Socialist Party, it has assumed an importance which cannot be 
easily discounted. The first Internationale is commonly called the 
Geneva Internationale; the second was originally known as the 
Paris Internationale, but in its reconstituted form is generally re- 
ferred to as the Berne Internationale; while the third or Communist 
Internationale is also variously termed the Moscow, Red, and Bol- 
shevik Internationale. Adherents of the latter often refer to the 
second Internationale as the Yellow Internationale, in scornful 
disparagement of its moderate tendencies. (See International 
Socialist Congresses; Interparliamentary Commission; Com- 
munist Manifesto.) 

Internationalists. In general, those who favor international- 
ism, as opposed to nationalism; more specifically, members of the 
Internationale, or International Workingmen's Association. 

Interparliamentary Commission. A subordinate body of 
the second Internationale; established through a resolution of 
the Amsterdam Congress of August, 1904. It consists of one dele- 
gate from each nation represented in the International Socialist 
Bureau which has declared its willingness to take part in the Com- 
mission. It aims to secure uniform parliamentary action in the 
various countries, and assists in attaining this end by the collection 
of the laws and by interchange of parliamentary discussions. In 
connection with a meeting of the Bureau there is held annually a 
conference in which all members of the adhering parties may take 
part. The members of the Bureau may take part in the sessions of 
the Commission in an advisory capacity. The voting of the Com- 
mission is similar to that of the Bureau. Its expenses are raised 
through dues and voluntary contributions. 

Interstate Joint Conferences in the Coal -Mining Industry. 

One of the most important examples of large-scale collective bar- 
gaining is to be found in the annual joint conference held between 
the bittiminous coal operators and representatives of the United 
Mine Workers for the several districts of what is called the "cen- 
tral competitive field" — comprising Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and 
western Pennsylvania. These conferences have been called "the 
largest industrial parliament in the world." On one side sit the 

[254] 



operators, on the other the representatives of the local unions of the 
miners; constituting what is practically a representative legislative 
body with two branches. From the discussions and deliberations 
of this body an agreement is developed which covers the broader 
or basic elements of wages and working conditions in the several coal 
districts, the prime purposes being to equalize competitive conditions 
between operators in the different districts and create uniform 
standards for the workers. The details of wage scales and of mining 
methods are left to adjustment by state and district conferences. 
The operators and miners of each state are allowed the same niimber 
of votes — four; and every important decision must be reached by 
unanimous vote. In actual practice, the greater part of the work 
of bringing about an agreement is performed by the so-called ''scale 
committee," made up of an equal nimiber of operators and miners 
from each state. This joint scale committee reports from time to 
time to the convention the progress which is being made, and after 
discussion in general conference the unsettled questions are referred 
back to the scale committee for settlement. When the latter body 
makes its final report, this is as a rule unanimously adopted without 
change. The interstate agreement method is followed also in what 
is called the southwestern district — comprising Arkansas, Oklahoma, 
Missouri, and Kansas — and, on a more limited geographical basis, 
in some other parts of the United States and Canada. (See Joint 
Conference System; Turn List.) 

Intimidation. In connection with strikes and lockouts, 
this term has been variously interpreted by the courts. Some magis- 
trates have held that intimidation, as a criminal offense, consisted 
in the utterance by a trade unionist of any threat or warning to an 
employer or non-union worker; while others have ruled that it must 
involve some degree of actual physical violence. "In many States 
are found statutes expressly prohibiting intimidation of workmen or 
others in their lawful business, while in those States which have 
specifically legalized strikes the laws ordinarily except combinations 
for the purpose of intimidating or coercing others, which are de- 
clared illegal. In the absence of statutes the courts ordinarily go 
quite as far under the common law. The decisions on this subject 
rest on the general principle, frequently enunciated, that it is the 
fundamental right of every individual to carry on his lawful business 
or labor without interference. Most commonly the courts, in con- 
demning acts of strikers in influencing others to quit employment 
or to refrain from seeking it, characterize them as 'intimidation' or 

[255] 



* coercion.' Just how far men may go in addressing other men without 
'intimidating' them is obviously a difficult matter to decide. Ap- 
parently the courts have been generally disposed to employ these 
terms very widely. The acts of strikers which are generally con- 
sidered in this connection are either the placing of 'pickets' or 
'patrols' in comparatively small numbers to accost those seeking 
employment at the plant struck against, or the gathering together of 
large bodies of men in the vicinity of the works for a similar purpose. 
The courts have almost uniformly held that the continued presence 
of a large body of men is in itself a threat, and especially that, where 
such an assemblage is accompanied by the use of opprobrious lan- 
guage, cries of 'scab,' threats of injury, or demonstrations giving 
ground for fear of physical injury, it constitutes unlawful intimida- 
tion. It has been asserted by several courts that, while the bearing 
of pickets may, in some cases, be such as to amount to intimidation, 
strikers are within their rights if the ntmaber of pickets is small, 
and if they confine themselves merely to informing men of the exist- 
ence of a strike and of its cause, and to persuading them not to enter 
employment. As a matter of fact, however, the courts very often, 
perhaps usually, discover in the acts of pickets evidences of actual 
intimidation." While the above statement follows the popular and 
legal habit of viewing intimidation as exclusively a working-class 
offense, it must in justice be noted that the workers are at least no 
less frequently the victims than they are the practitioners of intimi- 
dation. (See Picketing; Trade Disputes Act; Strikebreaking.) 

Intransigents or Intransigentists. Parties, movements, or 
persons which refuse to be reconciled or to come to any understanding 
with the existing order of things. The term is often used in designa- 
tion of the more radical members of the labor movement. 

Introduction of New Processes. Mr. and Mrs. Webb use 
this phrase in designation of one of the seven classes of regulations 
which trade tmionism seeks to enforce. These regulations relate in 
the main to the subject dealt with in the entry. Machine Question, 
in the present volume. 

Invalidity Insurance. Under the social insurance legis- 
lation in some countries, a distinction is made between "disability'* 
and "invalidity" on the basis of whether or not the worker is in- 
capacitated for a period of more than six months in the year. In- 
validity insurance (also sometimes called "infirmity insurance") 
usually provides medical as well as cash benefits. 

[256] 



Involuntary Servitude. "Any compulsory control by which 
the personal services of a hitman being are disposed of or coerced 
for another's benefit." The thirteenth amendment to the Constitu- 
tion provides that "Neither slavery nor involimtary servitude, 
except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been 
duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place 
subject to their jurisdiction." The system of peonage, which recent 
disclosures would indicate is common in certain sections of the 
South, is of course a direct violation of this amendment. Any sys- 
tem of COMPULSORY ARBITRATION, or othcr legislative restriction of 
the RIGHT TO STRIKE, is regarded by organized labor as creating a 
condition of involuntary servitude; and the term "involuntary servi- 
tude laws" is often applied to such enactments as the Kansas In- 
dustrial Court act and the Colorado Industrial Commission 
Law. (See Labor Contract; Native Labor.) 

Irish Labor Party and Trades Union Congress. The 
modem labor movement in Ireland may be said to begin with the 
formation of the Irish Trades Union Congress in 1894, and the Irish 
Socialist Republican Party (a Marxian organization initiated by 
James Connolly; now the Socialist Party of Ireland) in 1896. The 
Trades Union Congress took on political functions in 1912, and the 
title of "Irish Labor Party and Trades Union Congress " was adopted 
in 19 1 8. As described in the "Labor International Handbook," 
this organization "is a federation of national and local trade unions, 
trades councils, and workers' councils, and other unions with 
members in Ireland (i.e., Amalgamated Unions with headquarters 
in England, such as the National Union of Railwaymen). Local 
and national imions account for about three-fourths of the affili- 
ated membership, the Amalgamated Unions for the remainder. The 
total affiliations in 1920 were fifty-foiu" Unions and forty Councils. 
The membership ... in 1920 exceeded 300,000, or practically one- 
half the total number of wage-earners in Ireland. Of these 150,000 
are in the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union, and 
100,000 more in two further unions. Unaffiliated to the Party are 
some 40,000 organized workers in the Belfast area (though the 
Belfast Trades Coimcil is affiliated with 15,000 members), and in 
this area a small number of ultra-imperialist workers are organized 
imder open capitalist patronage in the Ulster Workers' Union and 
the Ulster Unionist Labor Association. The Party represents tha 
working class in Ireland on both the political and the industrial 
fields: the movement is essentially a mass movement, and the whole 

[257] 



affiliated membership acts, on big issues, as a single unit on the formal 
advice of the National Executive or of Congress. Its programme 
since 1918 is definitely committed to a Workers' Republic, and it 
has worked closely with the Republican movement. ... In industrial 
organization the movement has made rapid strides toward One 
Big Union with the object of 'eventually taking over the control 
of industry by the organized working class.' At present the National 
Executive is engaged, on commission from Congress, in working out 
a comprehensive plan of *a single all-inclusive Irish Workers* Union,' 
constituted of some ten industrial sections under the general direc- 
tion of a governing body or General Staff, which 'would in the main 
be appointed by and from the several industrial sections.' This has 
been retarded by the state of war of the last two or three years, but 
it is within measurable distance of achievement." 

Irish Transport and General Workers' Union. Founded 
in 1909 by James Larkin, as the nucleus for a One Big Union 
of Irish workers. According to the "Labor International Hand- 
book," "the long-drawn-out struggle in Dublin in 19 13 that centred 
round this union, with its new revolutionary slogans of the Workers' 
Republic and the S3rmpathetic strike, marked an epoch in the history 
of labor in these islands. Out of the Dublin struggle developed the 
revolutionism of recent years, the establishment of the Irish Citizen 
Army — the first body of workers to arm for the Workers' Republic 
in Western Europe — and, through the influence of James Con- 
nolly (bom 1870, executed while a woimded prisoner in the hands of 
the English miHtary, 19 16), the friendly understanding between 
revolutionary labor and revolutionary Republicanism, which has pre- 
sented a common front against the world war and imperialism. 
Since 19 13 the I. T. and G. W. U., with its principles of militant mass 
action, has dominated the Labor movement in Ireland." It had a 
membership of 150,000 in 1920. (See Irish Labor Party and 
Trades Union Congress.) 

Iron Law of Wages or Subsistence Theory. This, the 
earliest economic theory or explanation of general wages, is based 
on the conception that in the long run wages are determined by the 
*'cost of production" of labor — in other words, by the cost of a bare 
subsistence for the worker and his family; that since population 
tends to increase faster than the food supply, the numbers of the 
community are to a large extent held in check by a low rate of wages ; 
and that when wages are increased there is also an increase of popu- 
lation, and the competition of these increased numbers for employ- 

[258] 



ment automatically forces wages down again to their previous level. 
If, on the other hand, the laborer should receive less than a sub- 
sistence wage, he or his children would starve, and the consequent 
shortage of laborers would necessarily force wages back to the 
subsistence point. Thus, according to this theory, there can be no 
permanent increase or decrease in wages beyond what is commonly 
known as the minimum subsistence level. Thoroughly discredited 
and refuted as it has long been, this theory still exerts a powerful 
influence upon many employers and public officials. (See Mal- 

THUSIANISM.) 

Ironclad Agreement or Ironclad Oath. A form of contract, 
sometimes exacted by an employer of labor, which binds an employee 
never to join a trade union. An early form of the "ironclad," as it is 
sometimes called, runs as follows: "We also agree not to be engaged 
in any combination whereby the work may be impeded or the com- 
pany's interest in any work injured; if we do, we agree to forfeit 
to the use of the company the amount of wages that may be due uS 
at the time." (See Document.) 

Irritation Strike. See Striking on the Job. 

Italian Confederation of Workers. See Confederazione 
Italiana DEI Lavoratori. 

Italian Federation of Economic Trade Unions. See Italian 
Labor Movement. 

Italian General Confederation of Labor. See Confeder- 
azione Generale del Lavoro. 

Italian Labor Movement. For various reasons, not least the 
misgovemment to which they have been so long subjected, the 
Italians have taken more readily to the doctrines of syndicalism 
and anarchism than have the workers of any other country. The 
chief forms of association among the local labor organizations 
are represented by the camere del lavoro, or local chambers of 
labor, and the federazione dei mestiere, or national federations of 
trades or industries. Before the war most of these bodies were na- 
tionally federated in either the Confederazione Generale del 
Lavoro or the Unione Syndicale Italiana, both of which pursue 
revolutionary aims, although the latter is the more radical. In chief 
opposition to these two organizations stand the Confederazione 
Italiana dei Lavoratori, a national federation of the Catholic or 
white unions, and the Unione Italiana del Lavoro, which 

[259] 



attempts the strange feat of harmonizing syndicalism with national- 
ism. In November, 1920, a new organization, the Italian Federation 
of Economic Trade Unions, was formed at Milan. Its aim is to 
unite all the non-political and non-sectarian elements in the Italian 
labor movement, and particularly the technical and professional 
workers, for purely economic purposes. The economic exhaustion, 
disorganization, and impoverishment consequent in general to the 
recent war have borne with particular heaviness upon Italy and her 
wage-earners. The period since the armistice has been perhaps the 
stormiest in the country's industrial history, with strikes, lockouts, 
and other disturbances occurring with ever-increasing frequency. 
The most interesting and important development during this period 
has been the spontaneous rank and file demand for workers' con- 
trol of industry which became prominent soon after the close of the 
war. The chief manifestation of this demand appeared among the 
metal-workers of northern Italy, who in August of 1920 began a 
widespread seizure of factories, following the threat of a lockout 
on the employers' part. Within a few days a majority of the foun- 
dries, machine shops, and metal works of northern Italy were in the 
hands of the workers; and production was to some extent carried on 
by them, under factory committees. The Prime Minister, Giolitti, 
called a conference of representatives of the C. G. L. and the employ- 
ers by which an agreement was reached on September 19, conceding 
the principle of "trade union control" in industry. The joint com- 
mission established to work out the details of this scheme broke 
down; and in January, 1921, the government introduced a Bill for 
Labor Control similar in most respects to the German Works 
Councils Law. (See Bombacci Plan; Councils of Exploita- 
tion; SociETA Di Lavoro; Fascisti; Ministero per il Lavoro e 
la Previdenza Sociale; Probi-Viri.) 

Italian Ministry of Labor and Social Thrift. See Min- 
istero PER IL Lavoro e la Previdenza Sociale. 

Italian Socialist Party. See Confederazione Generale 
DEL Lavoro: Bombacci Plan. 



J, I. C. See Joint Industrial Councils. 

Japanese -American Passport Agreement. A so-called ** gen- 
tlemen's agreement," made in 1907 between the American and 
Japanese governments, which provides, in effect, that Japan will 
not issue passports good for continental United States to Japanese 
laborers unless such laborers are coming here to resume a formerly- 
acquired domicile; to join parent, husband, or children; or to assume 
active control of an already possessed interest in a farming enter- 
prise in this country. While the agreement relates only to immigra- 
tion to continental United States, Japan soon voluntarily extended 
the same provisions to Hawaii. Non-laborers, of course, are not 
affected, and are free to come and go under the same conditions as 
aliens of other nationalities. (See Picture Brides.) 

Japanese Federation of Trade Unions. See Japanese 
Labor Organizations. 

Japanese Labor Organizations. As in the case of China, 
the only form of labor organization in Japan until late in the last 
century consisted in the primitive guilds. These exist in large 
numbers under the leadership of "bosses" who frequently act as 
foremen and also serve in the capacity of private employment agents. 
Isolated labor unions somewhat approaching the western type began 
to appear in the nineties. Owing to police persecution most of them 
had, however, disappeared by 1900. In 191 2 a workers* society called 
the Yuai Kai was founded; and a fraternal society of printers, known 
as the Shinyu Kai, appeared in 191 7. Dtiring this latter year the 
high cost of living attendant on war-time prosperity produced a 
series of strikes, and the Yuai Kai and the Shinyu Kai developed into 
industrially active organizations. The rice riots of 19 18, with their 
widespread conflicts with the troops, stimulated class consciousness 
among the workers, and the early part of 19 19 saw a rapid growth in 
strikes and organization. By the end of 1919 a slump followed; and 
in 1920, to achieve unity, the twelve leading unions of Tokyo and its 
outlying districts (including the Yuai Kai, now organized on indus- 
18 [261] 



trial lines, with several departments, including metal, transport, 
mining, textile and other workers, and 150 branches, with a member- 
ship of 30,000) united in a loose federation to form the Japanese 
Federation of Trade Unions ; and fifteen unions of Osaka and its out- 
lying districts formed the Federation of Trade Unions of Western 
Japan. A report made by R. Soeda of the Kyocho Kai, in January, 
192 1, states that it is estimated that there are now more than 300 
trade unions in the country, nearly all of them being organized dur- 
ing 1919. The weaknesses of the trade unions, he states, lie in their 
poor financial status; the lack of a definite programme caused by 
extreme mobility of labor, which is constantly passing from factory 
to factory and from one occupation to another; the lack of soli- 
darity, which shows in the small remuneration of trade union officers 
and the constant dissolution of trade unions when the leading mem- 
bers of a union are dismissed from a factory following a labor dis- 
pute; lack of confidence in trade imion leaders, and the hereditary 
attitude of loyalty and devotion among the laboring classes toward 
those who employ them. 

Job Analysis. A systematic inquiry, on the part of large indus- 
trial and commercial concerns, into the component elements of each 
individual job in their establishments, and the himian qualifications 
and physical conditions necessary for its performance; the resulting 
data being used as a basis for proper placement of, and compensa- 
tion to, the worker. This plan has been especially successful in 
decreasing labor turnover and increasing output. (See Employ- 
ment Management.) 

Job Monopoly. A term commonly used in designation of 
the purpose or policy of a closed union — one that seeks to secure 
a monopoly of work for its own members in the particular craft or 
occupation which they follow. "Job monopoly" is commonly ac- 
complished by means of exclusive agreements with employers* 
associations, by restricting membership in the trade union, and by 
other methods. (See Monopoly Policy of Trade Unionism.) 

Job Piece Work. See Collective Piece Work. 

Job Selling. The practice on the part of certain foremen or 
superintendents of lev3dng tribute from those to whom they give 
employment. Such tribute is sometimes exacted not only at the 
time a job is provided, but also at regular intervals as long as the 
job is retained. This practice is legally forbidden in several states 
of the American union. (See Straw Boss; Tolling.) 

[262] 



Job Work. In a general sense, work that is paid for in a 
lump Slim agreed upon in advance, instead of on the usual time 
WORK or PIECE WORK basis. Practically all forms of the contract 
SYSTEM come within the category of job work. 

Jobber. See Piece Master; Stevedore System. 

Joint Agreement. See Trade Agreement. 

Joint Board, Trades Union Congress. See Trades Union 
Congress. 

Joint Committee. Usually a committee made up of repre- 
sentatives of both the employing and the working class. Sometimes, 
however, a committee comprising representatives of two or more 
trade unions, or two or more groups of employers. (See Bridgeport 
Plan.) 

Joint Conference Council. See Company Council. 

Joint Conference System. This term is ordinarily applied 
to the more formal plan of collective bargaining — commonly 
found in trades or industries where both employers and employees 
are strongly organized — which involves more or less regularly recur- 
rent and systematically conducted conferences between represen- 
tatives of the two sides. In the American workings of this system 
there is as a rule no written constitution or permanent treaty be- 
tween the organizations of employers and employees, establishing a 
definite organization and method of procedure for the conferences 
by which the general agreements are adopted, or for boards of 
ARBITRATION and CONCILIATION. "On the other hand, the separate 
constitutions and rules of the organizations of employers, and more 
particularly those of the organizations of employees, do provide more 
or less formally for the maintenance of the system, usually prescrib- 
ing methods for the selection of conference committees and regulating 
their methods of procedure in a general way, although much is still 
left to unwritten custom. Even in the absence of any written 
joint rules of a permanent character, custom has usually introduced 
fairly permanent and uniform practices of collective bargaining. 
There can be little doubt, however, that misunderstandings would 
in some cases be avoided, and the continuance of the system would 
be more fully guaranteed, if the practice, so common in England, 
of adopting formal constitutions and rules for joint committees 
and conferences should be introduced here. In order to appreciate 
the significance of the practices of these various trades as regards 

[263] 



the organization and methods of procedure of joint conferences, 
it is necessary to hold clearly in mind the fundamental nature of the 
task which these conferences set for themselves. They are not boards 
of arbitration or conciliation. It is not their function to act judicially 
in the interpretation of existing rules and practices, nor by concili- 
atory methods to bring about an agreement as to minor and local 
matters. They meet for the purpose of bargaining collectively 
regarding the general conditions on which labor shall be performed 
throughout the trade. Their work is in a sense to be considered 
legislation. More strictly speaking, it is simply negotiation between 
two parties, through their representatives, for the formation of a 
contract. It is because of this very nature of the collective bargaining 
process that we find the following facts holding true as regards most 
of the important national systems in the United States, though 
there are exceptions to each of the statements: (i) It is not required 
that the representatives of the respective parties shall be equal in 
number; (2) action is taken by compromise leading to imanimous 
agreement rather than by majority vote; (3) persons outside the 
trade are not called in to decide authoritatively general questions 
as to which the parties can not agree; (4) the number of conferees 
is usually quite large, although part of the more detailed work of 
reaching an agreement is often referred to smaller committees.'* 
(For a more detailed account of the joint conference system as 
developed in two representative American industries, see Interstate 
Joint Conferences in the Coal-Mining Industry and Joint 
Conference System in the Railway Industry. See also, Agree- 
ment System.) 

Joint Conference System in the Railway Industry. The 

methods of negotiating with employers which are followed by the 
four principal railway brotherhoods are in the main very similar. 
Most of the railway companies recognize these bodies and deal with 
their officers. "In no case is there any formal system of joint boards 
of employers and employees, with equal representation, and with 
definite constitution and rules. Nevertheless, on most railway sys- 
tems frequent conferences are held between officers of the brother- 
hoods and those of the railways. By these conferences, not merely 
minor disputes are settled, but to a large extent the general conditions 
of labor are determined. The officers of the brotherhoods are in 
most instances men of no little ability and of long experience in negoti- 
ations with employers. If local officers fail to reach settlements, 
appeal is usually made to the national officers, who are especially 

[264] 



experienced and conservative. The result is that disputes seldom 
fail of settlement and that strikes of the more skilled classes of railway 
employees are comparatively rare. . . In general, with some modifi- 
cations in details, the system is as follows: Each local lodge or 
DIVISION of a brotherhood has a local grievance committee of three 
or more members. For each railway line a general committee or 
general board of adjustment is established, composed of one or 
more delegates from each local division on the line. In the case of 
great composite systems of railroads, some of the brotherhoods 
provide also for a still higher committee of adjustment, composed 
of the chairman of each of the committees on the separate lines or 
branches of the system. These chairmen of general committees of 
adjustment are in many instances salaried officers, devoting their 
whole time to the interests of the members employed on the railway. 
It is their duty, in conjunction with local committees, to adjust, if 
possible, all differences of a local character that m,ay arise. Failing 
to reach a settlement in this way a meeting of the general committee 
of adjustment is called and it proceeds to negotiate with the higher 
officers of the railway companies. The action of such a general com- 
mittee of adjustment is binding upon all members employed upon 
the railway line (unless reversed, in the case of some of the organiza- 
tions, by referendum vote of the members so employed). On occasion 
of special need the national officers of the brotherhood are called 
in to negotiate with employers. The general conditions of labor are 
usually determined from time to time by conferences between these 
general committees of adjustment and the officers of the railway 
company, or in the case of the more extensive systems, between 
the higher committees above referred to and the officers of the sys- 
tem." (See Joint Conference System.) 

Joint Council. As commonly used in connection with Amer- 
ican trade unionism, this term denotes a delegate body composed 
of representatives of local unions in a single trade or several allied 
trades for a single large city, for two or more cities in close proximity, 
or for some other limited geographical area. The primary functions 
of such bodies are the maintenance of uniform conditions of employ- 
ment, and control over the declaration and conduct of strikes. Very 
few of them perform any definite administrative or judicial duties. 
In some national unions, the joint council is differentiated from the 
district union, having a more limited jurisdiction than the latter; 
in others the joint council, usually limited in jurisdiction to a single 
city, is the only form of representative body for joint action. (See 
Trades Council — American; District Council.) 

[265] 



Joint Industrial Councils. The general name given to the 
various works, district, and national bodies set up in British industry 
to carry into effect the proposals of the Whitley plan, which have 
been approved by the government. They are established only in 
industries in which both employers and workers are well organ- 
ized in their respective associations, and they consist of equal num- 
bers of representatives of employers' associations and trade unions. 
Their general function is to secure the largest possible measure of 
joint action between employers and workers for the development of 
the industry which they represent, as a part of national life, and for 
the improvement of the conditions of all engaged in the industry; 
and it is open to the councils to take any action that falls within 
the scope of this general definition. "Among their more specific 
objects may be mentioned the regular consideration of wages, hours, 
and working conditions in the industry as a whole; the consideration 
of measures for regularizing production and emplo>Taent; the con- 
sideration of the existing machinery, and the establishment of ma- 
chinery where it does not already exist, for the settlement of differ- 
ences between different parties and sections in the industry with the 
object of securing the speedy settlement of difffculties; the collec- 
tion of statistics and information on matters pertaining to the in- 
dustry; the encouragement of the study of processes and design and 
of research, with a view to perfecting the products of the industry; 
the improvement of the health conditions obtaining in the industry 
and the provision of special treatment where necessary for workers 
in the industry ; the consideration of the proposals for district councils 
and WORKS committees, put forward in the Whitley report, having 
regard in each case to any such organizations as may already be in 
existence; and cooperation with the joint industrial councils for 
other industries to deal with problems of common interest. The 
Ministry of Labor is the department responsible for assisting indus- 
tries in the setting up of these councils." The joint industrial coun- 
cils are commonly referred to under the initials, "J. I. C." (See 
Interim Industrial Reconstruction Committees; Trade Par- 
liament; Industrial Council.) 

Joint Label. A union label placed on a product in the 
making of which several allied trades or crafts, each nationally and 
separately organized, have participated. (See Allied Printing 
Trades Councils; Metal Trades Councils.) 

Joint Legislative Board. See Railway Brotherhoods. 
Joint Plant Council. See Company Council. 

[ 266 ] 



Joint Shop Committee, (i) A shop committee representa- 
tive of both employees and management in a single industrial estab- 
lishment or one department of an establishment. (2) A body con- 
sisting of all the SHOP chairmen of a single establishment. (3) A 
committee made up of employers' representatives and all the shop 
chairmen in a single establishment. (See Shop Council; Employee 
Representation.) 

Joint Standing Industrial Councils.. See Joint Industrial 
Councils. 

Joint Strike Committee. See Strike Committee. 

Journeyman. Meaning literally a day worker, this term was 
used in the time of the medieval guilds in designation of a crafts- 
man who had served his apprenticeship and had not yet become a 
master. It now denotes a fully qualified worker at any trade — one 
who, if a trade unionist, has successfully passed the examination 
or requirements for entrance to the union. (See Full Worker; 
Practical Man.) 

Judiciary Committee. See Trade Union Government — 
Local. 

Jugo -Slavia Central Trade Union Council. See Centralno 
Radnitchko Sindikalno Vetche. 

Jungle. Any labor camp, especially one in a remote and 
undeveloped region, is commonly known among migratory workers 
as a "jungle." 

Junta. A name given to the group of British trade union 
leaders who, working together in close association as a committee 
of amalgamated societies, directed and controlled British trade 
unionism from about 1850 to 1875, and really laid the lasting founda- 
tions of the movement. The principal members of the Junta were 
William Allen, Robert Applegarth, Daniel Guile, Edwin Coulson, 
and George Odger. 

Jurisdiction. In connection with labor affairs, this term 
denotes the "right" of a labor organization, as against other labor 
organizations, to either (i) the exclusive handling of certain kinds 
of work, material, tools, machinery, etc.; or (2) the exclusive alle- 
giance of workers at a particular trade or occupation; or (3) the ex- 
clusive control of workers within a certain geographical area — local, 
district, or national. The effort to enforce this actual or asserted 

[267] 



right frequently leads to bitter conflict between one organization 
and another. This form of conflict, known as a "jurisdictional 
dispute," is indeed the most prolific, costly, and demoralizing soiirce 
of internal friction in the organized labor movement. It is in con- 
nection with the conflicting claims in regard to the handling of certain 
kinds of work, materials, etc., that trouble most frequently arises. 
This class of conflicts (called in England ''demarcation disputes") 
may be exemplified by the question arising between bridge and struc- 
tural iron workers, on the one hand, and plimibers and steam fitters, 
on the other, as to which class of workers should install threaded 
pipe used for hand railings; or between carpenters and plumbers as 
to which should bore the floor-holes for piping; or between printers 
and machinists as to which should operate type-setting machines. 
Sometimes the question even involves an entire trade or craft, the 
whole field of which is claimed by rival unions. All of these disputes 
derive their interest to em^ployers and the public from the fact that 
the opposing unions so often back their contentions with the strike. 
" It seems intolerable that an employer, who is ready to pay the wages 
and to comply with all the conditions asked for by his workmen, 
should find his work stopped because two sections of the workmen 
can not agree between themselves about the boundaries of their 
fields of work. The workingmen themselves seem to lose as much 
by such stoppages as the masters, and they seem to have no more 
to gain. The most obvious motive of the disputants in such cases 
is the motive which determines so large a part of trade union policy 
— the desire to get the greatest possible amount of work to do. The 
field of work is conceived as divided on some basis of established 
custom, among the several groups of workers. Each group has a 
sense of proprietorship in that which it has occupied. There is a 
disputed land around its borders, which it feels to be its property, 
but which is claimed, with equal conviction, by the neighboring 
groups. The selfishness of each group suffers from the operations 
of the others within this disputed tract; but its sense of justice is 
outraged also. The question of the boundary becomes a question 
of pride and a question of principle; and it is fought over with an 
eagerness which is out of all proportion to the intrinsic importance 
of the dispute. But there is another aspect of such questions, which 
makes them important to workingmen as a whole, and which may 
sometimes entitle one of the disputants to consider that it represents 
the interest of the working class. If the employer is permitted, at 
his pleasure, to choose which of two unions shall do a given work, 
the effect is the same in kind as if he were permitted to revert to the 

[268] 



individual bargain. The work of the higher-paid unions may be 
handed over, Httle by little, to the lower paid. The higher standard 
may be nominally maintained, but its field of application is gradually 
narrowed; and, taking the employment as a whole, there is an in- 
sidious and unacknowledged lowering of the standard rate." 
Jurisdictional disputes concerning the allegiance of workers in a 
particular trade or occupation usually occur between a craft union 
on the one hand and an industrial union on the other — as for ex- 
ample, in the struggle between the national teamsters' organization 
and the United Brewery Workers for ** jurisdiction" over teamsters 
employed by the breweries. Conflicts in connection with the claim 
of exclusive control over a certain geographical area (usually known 
as territorial or geographical jurisdiction) may be exemplified by 
the long contest between the Western Federation of Miners and the 
United Mine Workers for control over the western mining districts. 
Jurisdictional disputes of all three types have been alleviated to some 
extent by the organization of local unions into national unions; by 
the AMALGAMATION of rival national unions into a single national 
body; and by the affiliation of local unions with trade councils 
and of national unions with a strong national federation. But as 
yet no permanently successful solution of the problem has been dis- 
covered. (See Overlap; Demarcation; Right to the Trade; 
Vested Interests Doctrine; Sectionalism; Dual Union; En- 
croachment; Label Jurisdiction; Jurisdictional Agreement.) 

Jurisdiction Members. See Members at Large. 

Jurisdictional Agreement. A formal understanding between 
two or more trade unions in regard to the specific authority of each 
over certain kinds of work, certain workers, or certain geographical 
areas. A jurisdictional agreement marks the settlement of a conflict 
over jurisdiction between the imions which are parties to the 
agreement. 

Jurisdictional Disputes. See Jurisdiction; Overlap. 



K 



Kamers van Arbeid. Dutch chambers of labor or industrial 
COUNCILS, consisting of equi-partisan bodies of employers and em- 
ployees representing their respective interests within a trade or 
locality. They are under the supervision of, and report to, the na- 
tional department of labor. These councils concern themselves 
with questions of wages and hours and other conditions of employ- 
ment, make recommendations to the authorities respecting legisla- 
tion, and adjust industrial disputes. 

Kamgar Hitwardhak Sab ha (Workingmen's Welfare Associa- 
tion). See India, Labor Organisation in. 

Kansas Industrial Court. Under a law passed early in 1920, 
the state legislature of Kansas has set up a ''Court of Industrial 
Relations," with compulsory powers of supervision and arbitration 
in a niimber of industries declared to be affected "with a public in- 
terest." The Court is composed of three judges, appointed by the 
Governor. Ordinary rules of evidence govern its procedure, and the 
decisions arrived at are fully mandatory. Those industries over which 
the Court exercises jurisdiction are specified as follows: "(i) The 
manufacture or preparation of food products whereby, in any stage 
of the process, substances are being converted, either partially or 
wholly, from their natural state to a condition to be used as food for 
himian beings; (2) the manufacture of clothing and all manner of 
wearing apparel in common use by the people of this state whereby, 
in any stage of the process, natural products are being converted, 
either partially or wholly, from their natural state to a condition 
to be used as such clothing and wearing apparel; (3) the mining or 
production of any substance or material in common use as fuel for 
domestic, manufacturing, or transportation purposes; (4) the trans- 
portation of all food products and articles or substances entering into 
wearing apparel, or fuel as aforesaid, from the place where produced 
to the place of manufacture or consumption; (5) all public utilities." 
Strikes in these industries are permanently forbidden; any dispute 
arising between employers and workmen must be referred to the 

[270] 



Court for investigation and decision; and the Court has power to 
order "such changes, if any, as are necessary to be made in and about 
the conduct of said industry, employment, utiHty or common car- 
rier, in the matters of working and hving conditions, hours of labor, 
rules and practices, and a reasonable minimum wage, or standard of 
wages." Violations of the orders of the Co-urt or the provisions of 
the act creating it are considered misdemeanors; while any person 
intentionally influencing another to violate such orders or provisions 
is considered guilty of a felony. In either case heavy punishments 
by fine or imprisonment or both are provided. The act provides that 
"all incidental powers necessary to carry into effect the provisions 
of this act are hereby expressly granted to and conferred upon said 
Court of Industrial Relations." Needless to say, the act has aroused 
the bitter hostility of organized labor within and without the state 
of Kansas, as destroying the right of collective bargaining and 
creating what labor regards as a condition of involuntary servi- 
tude. (See Compulsory Arbitration.) 

Katheder Sozialisterii See Socialists of the Chair. 

Keating -Owen Bill. A Congressional enactment of 1916, 
prohibiting the transportation in interstate commerce of the products 
of factories in which children under fourteen years of age had been 
employed, or in which children between fourteen and sixteen had 
worked more than eight hours a day or six days a week or at night. 
The same prohibition was applied to the products of mines em- 
ploying children under sixteen. The United States Supreme Coiu-t, 
in June, 1918, declared this act unconstitutional, as an unwarranted 
extension of the Federal power to regulate interstate commerce. 
As a result, Congress shifted the basis of its interference to the 
taxing power, and embodied provisions in the Revenue Act of 19 19 
levying a special tax of ten per cent on the net profits of employers 
of child labor under certain conditions. (See Child Labor Tax.) 

Kindred Craft Union. See Craft Union. 

Knights of Labor. A national organization of labor in the 
United States founded in 1869, under the leadership of Uriah S. 
Stevens. In 18 71 the title of "Noble Order of the Knights of Labor" 
was adopted by the society. Membership was at first limited to 
tailors. Soon, however, those in other trades were admitted as 
associate members, and were later permitted to organize separate 
branches or "assemblies " in their respective trades. With the forma- 
tion of these new branches the parent body was designated "Assem- 

[271] 



bly No. I," and the assemblies later organized were numbered 
serially. The need of some central or uniting authority led to the 
establishment of a ** Committee on the Good of the Order," con- 
sisting of three members from each assembly. In 1873 ^^is temporary 
committee was superseded by a delegate body known as the Dis- 
trict Assembly. As the local assemblies increased, other district 
assemblies were organized. The parent assembly, of which Stevens 
was the "Master Workman," together with several of the earlier 
branches, constituted "District Assembly No. i," with Stevens at 
its head. The subsequent increase of district assemblies led to the 
establishment in 1878 of a national "General Assembly," made up 
of delegates from seven states and representative of fifteen trades. 
Stevens was placed at the head of this national body, with the title 
of "Grand Master Workman." Conventions were held annually 
thereafter. In 1886 the membership of the Order had risen to 700,000, 
but soon thereafter it began to decline in competition with the new 
American Federation of Labor, until today but little remains of 
the organization. The society was not organized on the autonomous 
trade union or craft union basis, but admitted all workers — skilled 
and unskilled, men and women, white and black — without distinc- 
tions of trade or craft. Until 188 1 it was conducted as a secret 
order, with an elaborate veil of ritual, sign, grip, and password, 
designed to keep out spies. Its affairs were controlled by a highly 
centralized authority. It took a large part in politics, and in cooper- 
ative production and consumption. (See Trade Union Coopera- 
tion.) 

Knights of St. Crispin. A secret organization of shoe- 
makers (1867-1873) which was at one time the most powerful labor 
body in the United States, having some 40,000 members. 

Knobstick. See Blackleg. 

Knox Strike. See One-Man Strike. 

Krankenkassen. See Mutual Aid Societies. 

Kustars or Kustarniki. In Russia, persons engaged in 
home work are so called. A considerable portion of the Russian 
peasantry are of this class. They are regarded by the Soviet govern- 
ment as small proprietors, and are subject to State control in various 
ways. (See Cottage Industry.) 

Kyocho Kai (Harmonizing Society) . At a meeting of prominent 
Japanese government officials held at Tokyo in January, 1919, it 

[272] 



was decided that a national organization should be formed having 
as its main object the creation of amicable relations between "capi- 
tal" and "labor," and capable of carrying out the following duties: 
(i) The education of labor, to be effected by means of the publica- 
tion of newspapers and magazines, the arrangement of lectures, etc., 
with the object of raising the intellectual standard; (2) the investiga- 
tion of labor conditions and the study of labor questions at home and 
abroad likely to contribute toward the solution of the labor problem; 
(3) the management of a Central Employment Bureau, and the en- 
couragement of activities of employment bureaus in the various 
districts; (4) the establishment of an internal organization to deal 
with the settlement of labor disputes; (5) the establishment of 
branches of the organization in several of the larger cities in the 
country, to take charge of such questions as the protection and as- 
sistance of workers, the education of their children, and the finding 
of housing accommodations. In accordance with this plan, a fund 
of six million yen was raised and the new society, called the Kyocho 
Kaiy or "harmonizing society," was definitely launched in Dec- 
ember, 1919. Owing to its close alliance with capitalist interests, the 
society soon fell into disfavor with the working classes. It was recon- 
structed on a more popular basis toward the end of 1920. 



La Follette Seamen's Act. See Seamen's Act. 

Label Administration. In trade unions using the union 
LABEL, the determining of conditions under which the label shall 
be granted and the defining of methods for issuing the label are 
usually functions of the national rather than of local officers. It is 
important to create and enforce uniform conditions, to prevent the 
unauthorized use of labels, and to see that manufacturers having 
LABEL AGREEMENTS are duly protected. Sometimes these matters 
are entrusted to the president of the national body, sometimes to 
the secretary or secretary-treasiu"er. At least one union has a na- 
tional official known as the "label holder," who keeps the labels 
under lock and key and gives them as needed to the national secre- 
tary, who in turn distributes them to the local unions. The local 
administration of the label is vested in the officers either of the 
DISTRICT COUNCIL or of the local unions. Where more than one 
local of a national union is chartered in any locality, the "joint 
councils" of representatives from such locals administer the label 
for that locality. In certain unions where the label is of particular 
importance, the locals have special officers known as "label cus- 
todians" or "label secretaries" for the performance of this duty. 
In others the task is delegated to a local "label committee." The 
administration of the label in the individual shop is usually entrusted 
to the regular shop steward, although sometimes a special "label 
steward" is appointed for this specific purpose. 

Label Advertiser. See Label Agitator. 

Label Agitator. The work of extending the use of the union 
label and of creating a demand among trade unionists for label 
GOODS is ordinarily a function of local unions. In some cases, how- 
ever, this task is delegated to the national union, and is either part of 
the functions of the national organizers or is entrusted to special 
officials known as "label agitators" or "label advertisers," who travel 
about the country working among local imions and speaking in 

[274] 



behalf of the label before groups of trade unionists. (See Deputy 
System.) 

Label Agreement or Label Contract. In those trades which 
use the union label, it is customary for local trade unions to make 
formal compacts with individual employers setting forth the terms 
and conditions under which the label is to be used. In return for the 
privilege of using the label, the employer ordinarily agrees to hire 
only union labor and to submit all disputes to arbitration. The 
union commonly agrees not to sanction any strike, and to assist 
the employer in procuring competent workers in the place of any 
who may insist upon striking; while the employer agrees not to lock 
out his workers. (See Label Shop.) 

Label Committee. See Label Administration. 

Label Contract. See Label Agreement. 

Label Custodian. See Label Administration. 

Label Goods or Label Products. Goods or products bearing 
the union label are thus designated by trade unionists. (See Label 
Jurisdiction; Label Trades.) 

Label Holder. See Label Administration. 

Label Jurisdiction. Frequent disputes arise between trade 
unions using the union label in regard to the exclusive use of the 
label on certain products or the exclusive right to organize workers 
engaged in producing label goods. These difficulties arise in three 
classes of cases: (i) Where the members of two trades claim the right 
to do the same work and to place their label on the product; (2) 
where the product is one made by workers of several distinct trades 
each of which claims the right to participate in the regulation of the 
label; and (3) where certain trades are essentially subsidiary. Such 
disputes are usually settled by jurisdictional agreements between 
the national or local unions involved. In cases of the second-named 
class, the adoption of a joint label has generally served to solve the 
difficulty. In the third-named class it is sometimes required that 
members of the subsidiary trades shall become members of the 
label-using union, in addition to holding m^embership in the union 
of their own trade or craft. (See Allied Printing Trades Councils.) 

Label Leagues. See Union Label Leagues. 

Label Secretary. See Label Administration. 

[275] 



Label Shop. An industrial establishment which uses the 
UNION LABEL on its product, in accordance with the terms of a label 

AGREEMENT. 

Label Steward. See Label Administration. 

Label Trades. Those occupations or industries the product 
of which commonly bear the union label are sometimes so called. 
Cigar making is the oldest and best known of the label trades. 

Label Unions. Those labor organizations, local or national, 
which make use of the union label on articles produced by their 
members, are so called. Such unions are sometimes initiated and 
fostered by employers, who wish to secure the use of the label as a 
commercial asset. (See Dependent Unionism.) 

Labor. In the classic economic definition, ''himian exertion 
of mind or body undergone with the object of creating goods ' ' ; one 
of the three agents of production, land and capital being the others. 
But, unlike land and capital, labor is not a tangible thing; it can never 
be disassociated from the body and mind of the laborer. Hence the 
old economic classification has in part given rise to limitless current 
confusion, as implying that "labor" and "capital" are coordinate 
things which, according to the cant formula, must "get together," 
"cooperate," "adjust their differences," etc., etc. As the English 
writer, R. H. Tawney, has well said, "'labor' consists of persons; 
'capital' consists of things or claims to things. To lament 'the 
strife,' or to plead for 'cooperation' between 'labor and capital' is 
much as though an author should deplore the ill-feeling between 
carpenters and hammers or undertake a crusade to restore harmonious 
relations between mankind and their boots. The muddle is not 
mended by the fact that by 'capital' is meant 'capitalists.' For the 
vice of the phrase is that it treats the claims of 'labor and capital' 
as coordinate. If they are, and were generally recognized to be, 
coordinate, cadit qucestio. But the problem only arises because 
an increasing proportion of mankind believes that the world should 
be managed primarily for those who work, not for those who own. 
To start by burying that fundamental issue beneath smooth phrases 
as to 'the common aim of industry' is to asstmie the very point 
which requires to be proved, and which alone provides matter for 
discussion." In the present book and in nearly all treatments or 
discussions of the labor movement, it is manual labor that is 
chiefly referred to — not because manual labor is regarded as the 
only form of labor, but because "it is that kind of labor which those 

[276] 



who engage in the movement believe to have been most wronged 
in the past and most to need having wrongs righted in the present." 
For a broad inclusive definition of labor Ruskin's is probably the 
best: ''Labor is the contest of the life of man with an opposite; 
the term 'life' including his intellect, soul, and physical power, 
contending with question, difficulty, trial, or material force." (See 
Commodity Theory of Labor; Labor Supply; Supply and De- 
mand, Law of.) 

Labor Agreement. See Trade Agreement. 

* 'Labor and the New Social Order.'* A draft report on 
post-war reconstruction, prepared by a sub-committee of the British 
Labor Party and submitted to the Party in January, 1918. Most 
of its proposals were adopted in the form of resolutions at the Party's 
summer conference, in June, 191 8. The report was widely reprinted 
and discussed as one of the most significant documents of the war 
period. 

Labor Annies. See Revolutionary Labor Armies. 

Labor Audit. Defined by Messrs. Tead and Metcalf as "a 
reasonably exhaustive and systematic statement and analysis of 
the facts and forces in an industrial organization which affect the 
relations between employees and management, and between em- 
ployees and their work; followed by recommendations as to ways 
of making the organization more socially and himianly productive 
and solvent." It is the work of a trained auditor or investigator, who 
corresponds, in the field of labor relations, to a financial auditor 
or sales auditor in the financial and selling fields of industry. The 
labor audit is an important function of personnel administration. 

Labor Booklet. In order to avoid as far as possible disputes 
between individual wage earners and the employers of labor over 
the performance of the terms of employment, every worker in Russia 
is provided with a "labor booklet," in which must be entered the 
terms of his employment, the quantity of work performed, the 
amount of wages received by him, and all other particulars relating 
to his work and payment. This general system has long prevailed 
in other European countries, and even in Russia it is by no means 
an innovation of the Soviet government. In present-day Russia, 
however, the "labor booklet" serves as a passport and as a method 
of enforcing the Soviet labor code. 

Labor Boss. See Boss. 

[277] 



Labor Camps. Living quarters, generally provided by employ- 
ers, for workers engaged upon industrial operations (mining, lumber- 
ing, railway construction, agriculture, etc.) in regions inaccessible 
or inconvenient to ordinary towns or cities. Such camps are usually 
of a temporary nature, although the investigations of the Federal 
Commission on Industrial Relations disclosed "a large number" 
of labor camps "which have been in existence for more than a gen- 
eration." Labor camps for certain kinds of work have been brought 
under public regulation in a few states. (See Closed Camp; Com- 
pany Housing; Jungle; Flunkey; Walker.) 

Labor Checks. Some socialists have advocated that so-called 
*' labor checks" be substituted for money in the future socialist 
COMMONWEALTH. In such a State, it is argued, every individual will 
work for the common good, and for purposes of exchange there will 
be necessary only an official ticket or token certifying to the amount 
of such work that has been rendered during a specified period of time. 
These tickets or tokens would be exchangeable for goods in the 
various stores owned and operated by the State. 

Labor Church Movement. Originating in England in 1891, 
this movement has since spread to the United States, Canada, and 
elsewhere. It consists in the establishment of special places of wor- 
ship for members of the laboring classes, its supporters believing 
that "the emancipation of labor can only be realized so far as men 
learn both the economic and the moral laws of God, and heartily 
endeavor to obey them." 

Labor Clearance Zones. See Zone Clearance System. 

Labor College. See Central Labor College. 

Labor Colonies. Described as an attempt to "put the waste 
labor on the waste land by means of the waste capital," labor colonies 
date back to 18 18, when the Society of Beneficence founded the first 
Dutch enterprise. The members of these colonies are recruited from 
the ranks of the defective, the vagrant, the inefficient, and the un- 
employed. Their purpose is generally to provide temporary employ- 
ment, usually of an agricultural nature, for destitute workers, who 
receive not only board and lodging but some nominal wages also. The 
organization of labor colonies has been undertaken by public authori- 
ties or private charity associations in nearly all large countries. 
Sometimes (as in Belgium) such colonies are mainly in the nature 
of penal institutions for beggars and vagrants. In America the 

[278] 



Salvation Army has led the labor colony movement. Because of its 
large tracts of waste land upon which labor may be utilized, Aus- 
tralia has been particularly successful in organizing labor colonies. 

Labor Contract. A general designation for any form of 
agreement "by which one who is called the employer engages another 
who is called the employee to do something for the benefit of the 
employer or of a third person." While theoretically similar, in a 
legal sense, to other kinds of contract, the labor contract has in 
course of time come to be recognized as something peculiar, in that 
it can never be specifically enforced. According to Commons and 
Andrews, **the laborer cannot sell himself into slavery or into invol- 
untary SERVITUDE. He retains the right to change his mind, to 
quit work, to run away. Certain other contracts can, in the absence 
of any other sufficient remedy, be enforced by the courts by compel- 
ling 'specific performance.' But specific performance of the labor 
contract is involuntary servitude. Business contracts, if violated, 
are ground for damages which the court orders paid even to the 
extent of taking all of the business property of the debtor. The labor 
contract also, if violated, is ground for damages, but for the cotirt 
to order damages paid out of labor property would be to order the 
laborer to work out the debt. This is involuntary servitude. Hence 
the employer is left with the empty remedy of bringing suit against 
a property less man. He can protect himself by making contracts 
which he also can terminate at any time by discharging the workman 
without notice. Thus the labor contract becomes, in effect, a new 
contract every day and hour. It is a continuous process of wage 
bargaining. It carries no effective rights and duties for the future, 
and is as insecure as it is free." Involving as it does the body and 
life of the laborer, the labor contract is a bargain not only for wages 
but also for hours of labor, physical conditions of sanitation and 
safety, risks of accident and disease, etc. "Unemployment is failure 
to make such a bargain; immigration, child labor, education, 
PRISON LABOR, COLLECTIVE BARGAINING, and SO ou, are Conditions 
which determine the bargaining power of the laborer. Every topic 
in LABOR LEGISLATION IS a phasc of the wage bargain, and it is 
because a large class of people have come to depend permanently, 
not on their property or resources, but on these bargains with property- 
owners, that labor legislation has significance." While trade agree- 
ments are often called "labor contracts," they are in reality no more 
than mutually accepted memoranda of rates of pay and working 
conditions, to which the real labor contract between the individual 

[279] 



employer and the individual employee is supposed to conform. 
Like the individual contract, it cannot be enforced without creating 
a condition of involuntary servitude. (See Contract at Will.) 

Labor Copartnership. A general designation for any effort 
to modify the wage system by the application of profit sharing 
and capital sharing to an industrial enterprise. The use of the 
term is not limited to any particular method, except, perhaps, that 
simple profit sharing is usually regarded as only a step towards 
labor copartnership, and that, in its more definite sense, the principle 
involves provisions for the employees to accumulate capital. A 
copartnership idealist would probably add that to be perfect there 
should be some form of employee representation in the adminis- 
tration. It is claimed that copartnership gives the employee in- 
creased interest in the economy and efficiency of production, coupled 
with the feeling that he is being more equitably dealt with in the 
division of the profits of industry, whilst capital owning brings with 
it a greater sense of responsibility and a wider outlook. Labor co- 
partnership seems to have received its earliest stimulus in France, 
where the two most noted examples of its application are found in 
the Maison Leclaire, a painting and decorating concern of Paris, and 
the Godin Familist£re at Guise. The movement soon spread to 
England, where it has made the largest progress. Here it is encour- 
aged and represented by the Labor Copartnership Association, 
which seeks (i) in the cooperative movement to aid by its propaganda 
and advice all forms of production based on the copartnership prin- 
ciple, and (2) in other businesses to induce employers and employed 
to adopt schemes of profit sharing and investment tending in the 
same direction. The plan adopted in 1886 by the N. O. Nelson Manu- 
facturing Co., of St. Louis, Mo., and Leclaire, 111., is one of the 
earliest and best-known copartnership experiments in the United 
States. While copartnership has often resulted in increased wages, 
it has generally failed to give the worker any effective share in the 
direction and control of industry. It is, indeed, actively opposed 
by the organized labor movement, as tending to weaken trade union- 
ism and to obscure the fundamental issue between labor and capi- 
talism. The term ** copartnership" is often used in connection with 
independent trading concerns formed by working men, but these 
are in reality cooperative societies. (See Tenants' Copartnership 
Societies.) 

Labor Cost or Labor Value. See Wages. 

Labor Councils. See Australian Labor Movement. 

[280I 



Labor Day. An international holiday dedicated to labor, and 
usually celebrated by parades, picnics, open-air demonstrations, 
etc. In the United States, Labor Day falls on the first Monday in 
September; in Europe, on the first day of May. Labor Day is held 
especially sacred by all American trade unionists. It is not unusual 
to levy a fine upon any member who works. Sometimes a member 
is fined even for not joining in the Labor Day parade. Of course 
these special regulations have a motive beyond the economic motive 
which prompts the observance of other holidays and the disapproval 
of OVERTIME. Labor Day is sacred to the working class, and to fail 
to do it honor is considered a sort of profanation. (See Labor 
Sunday; Labor's Memorial Day.) 

Labor Decrease. See Mobility of Labor. 

Labor Department. See United States Department of 
Labor. 

Labor Detective Agencies. Private companies whose func- 
tion it is to supply employers with under-cover men, agents 

PROVOCATEURS, STRIKEBREAKERS, ARMED GUARDS, etC. The TCCCnt 

exhaustive investigation of espionage in industry, made under the 
auspices of the Cabot Fund for Industrial Research, revealed the 
existence of hundreds of such agencies. Some are huge national 
organizations, with branch offices in all prominent industrial centres; 
while the majority are smaller local agencies. They usually operate 
under high-sounding names which give no clue to the real natiire of 
the business — such as "service," "service corporation," "industrial 
engineers," "harmonizers," "conciliators," "adjusters," etc. Many 
of them originally were, and some still are in part, criminal detective 
agencies; while their executives are almost invariably former crim- 
inal detectives. According to the Cabot Report, the original Pinker- 
ton first discovered the possibilities of the detective in industry; 
and because of his subsequent activity in this field, it is common 
among the working class to speak of any labor detective as a "Pink- 
erton" or "Pinkerton man." The staff report of the Federal 
Commission on Industrial Relations contains the following 
paragraph with reference to this matter: "In view of the endless 
crimes committed by the employees of the so-called detective agencies, 
who have been permitted to usurp a function that should belong 
only to the State, it is suggested that the Commission recommend 
to Congress either that such of these agencies as may operate in 
more than one State, or may be employed by corporations engaged 

I281] 



in interstate commerce, or may use the mails, shall be compelled to 
take out a Federal license, with regulations to insiure the character 
of their employees and the limitation of their activities to the bona 
fide business of detecting crime, or that such agencies shall be utterly 
abolished through the operation of the taxing pc^/er or through 
denying them the use of. the mails." 

Labor Exchanges. Public employment bureaus, particularly 
of the highly developed type operated under governmental control 
in England and other foreign countries, are CDmmonly so called. 
** Labor exchanges cannot create work nor make the existing irregular 
demand for labor steady the year through, but they can, if properly 
managed, remove the unnecessary loss of time which workers now 
suffer in passing from one job to the next; they can eliminate the 
numberless evils which now characterize private employment offices ; 
and they can provide the information and administrative machinery 
which is essential to every other step in dealing with the problem." 
(See Labor Exchanges Act; Decasualization of Labor; Bureaux 
Paritaires; Bourses du Travail.) 

Labor Exchanges Act. A British Parliamentary enactment 
of 1909, which authorized the Board of Trade to collect and furnish 
information as to employers requiring workpeople, and workpeople 
seeking employment, and to authorize loans toward meeting the 
expenses of workpeople travelling to places where employment has 
been found for them through an employment exchange. For the 
purposes of the Act, the whole country is divided into several divi- 
sions, each with a divisional clearing-house, presided over by a 
divisional chief, and all coordinated with a national clearing-house 
in London. Distributed throughout these divisions are more than 
five hundred local labor exchanges, or employment bureaus. 
A joint advisory committee is established in every principal centre, 
on which representatives of workmen and employers meet in equal 
numbers, under the chairmanship of an impartial permanent official. 
In 191 7 the employment exchanges came under the control of the 
newly constituted Ministry of Labor. 

Labor Flux. See Mobility of Labor. 

Labor Forward Movement. A name given to the organized 
effort on the part of constituent bodies of the American Federation 
OF Labor to arouse members to increased activity and zeal in the 
cause of union labor, and to disseminate more widely infoiTnation 
regarding trade union principles and ideals. This work was inaugu- 

[282] 



rated in 191 2 b3^ an intensive campaign in Minneapolis and St. Paul, 
which has been folLwed at intervals by similar campaigns in other 
large cities. 

Labor Glut. See Labor Supply. 

Labor Increase. See Mobility of Labor. 

Labor Inspection in Russia. The Soviet labor code provides 
for a national system of inspection under the jurisdiction of the 
People's Commissariat of Labor. Labor inspectors are elected 
by the central bodies of the trade unions. The powers of the labor 
inspectors are very wide. They may enter at any time of day or 
night any industrial establishment, as well as the lodgings provided 
by the employers for their workers. They may adopt special rules 
for the removal of conditions endangering the life and health of 
employees. They may require the production by the management 
of all the books and records of the establishment, and they may 
prosecute all persons violating the provisions of the labor code. 

Labor Legislation. While distinction was formerly made be- 
tween FACTORY ACTS and labor legislation, the latter term is now 
generally used in designation of any laws which are directly or in- 
directly related to the interests of labor. In Professor Carlton's 
classification, labor legislation is of three main kinds: "(i) Legis- 
lation of a general character, considered desirable by organized 
labor but not dealing specifically with the wage earners as a class, 
for example, free schools, free homesteads, the popular election of 
United States senators, the Australian ballot system, the parcels 
post; (2) legislation specifically beneficial to the wage earning class, 
such as laws fixing the maximum nimiber of working hours per day, 
the restriction of immigration, child labor laws and workmen's 
compensation; (3) distinctly union legislation, such as modifications 
in the laws in regard to the injunction, and the exemption of labor 
organizations from the provisions of the anti-trust laws." While 
any adequate outline or discussion of labor legislation is obviously 
impossible in such a book as this, one or two general points of interest 
may be noted. The terms ''master" and "servant" used in early 
British and American legislation are expressive of the old servile 
status of the laborer, when his body was actually or in effect the prop- 
erty of his em.ployer or creditor. While the law still retains these 
terms, legislatures have largely broken away from them, preferring 
* 'employer" and "employee" as expressive of some degree of equality 
in the wage bargain. In comparison with such a country as Great 

[283] 



Britain, where unified legislation is enacted for the nation as a whole, 
by a body in which labor has its own elected representatives, the 
labor interests of the United States are in a position of peculiar 
disadvantage — owing mainly to our federal system of government 
and the constitutional supremacy of our judiciary over labor legis- 
lation. Professor Commons states the position thus: "On account 
of the fact that we have some fifty different legislative bodies enacting 
labor laws on entirely different levels of pressure, and as many 
different courts declaring these laws unconstitutional, labor has been 
compelled to organize over a wide area, to solidify its organization, 
and to enact, by the power of organization, uniform laws which 
our federal system and our written constitutions have prevented 
the states from enacting." In addition to this direct enactment of 
labor legislation, organized labor exerts a considerable influence, 
through the city centrals, state federations of labor, and 
LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEES of the national unions and the American 
Federation of Labor, in advancing legislation "favorable" to 
labor interests and defeating "unfavorable" legislation. But other 
groups play an important part. The National Child Labor Com- 
mittee with its state branches in many industrial states, the National 
Women's Trade Union League, the National Consumers' League, 
the American Association for Labor Legislation — these are some 
of the important agencies that have helped to secure a large portion 
of the progressive American industrial legislation of the past. They 
have often worked in close cooperation with the legislative committees 
of the unions. (See Police Power; Labor Lobby; State Indus- 
trial Commission; Legal Enactment.) 

Labor Lieutenants. The common assumption of craft 
unionism that the interests of employer and employee are "iden- 
tical" has given rise to the charge on the part of radical unionists 
that the organizers and officials of conservative unions are the 
"labor lieutenants of the captains of industry" — a phrase said to 
have been first used by Mark Hanna. 

Labor Lobby. In ordinary usage, the term "lobby" is ap- 
plied to any group of persons who, while not members of a legislative 
body, endeavor to influence the action of such a body in regard to 
legislation in which the "lobbyists" are interested. They may 
be paid representatives of certain "interests," following this as a 
regular profession, or they may simply visit the capital upon certain 
important occasions when they wish to advance or defeat a particu- 
lar measure. A "labor lobby," like any other, may be either of 

[284] 



these two kinds. Its purpose is to promote legislation favorable to 
organized labor or to defeat unfavorable legislation. Its ethical 
position, like that of an employers' or any other lobby, depends upon 
the character of the methods which it pursues. (See Legislative 
Committee.) 

Labor Manager. The personnel manager in a large indus- 
trial establishment is often so called. In connection with the con- 
tinuous ARBITRATION machinery set up in the American clothing 
trades, the labor manager has played a particularly important part. 
Besides the individual managers for the larger plants, the smaller 
establishments in each of the six leading clothing centres usually 
combine to hire a single labor manager. These officials, for the most 
part industrial and economic experts, are usually the employers* 
representatives on joint boards and in all negotiations with the 
workers. 

Labor Market. This term is commonly used in designation 
of the total labor supply available for purchase at a given time and 
place; or, in a more abstract sense, the arrangement by which, or 
the field in which, the forces of supply and demand in relation to 
the purchase of ''labor" are operative. This common conception 
of a ''labor market," corresponding in all essential respects to a 
"metal market" or a "wheat market," is of course a natural cor- 
rolary to the commodity theory of labor. 

Labor Members. In England, those representatives of working- 
class interests who have been elected to any public body — whether 
the Imperial Parliament or a local board of any sort. 

Labor Monopoly. See Monopoly Policy of Trade Union- 
ism. 

Labor Movement. In a limited sense, any organized effort 
on the part of a group of wage-earners is a "labor movement." In 
a much broader sense, what is called the labor movement is often 
identified with the purely industrial or economic side of trade 
imionism, whether of a single country or of all countries. But in 
the broadest possible sense, the term is an inclusive all-embracing 
designation for the entire field of labor activities and aspirations — 
all the facts, theories, forces, tendencies, and achievements which 
go to make up or are definitely associated with the organized effort 
of the world's toilers to improve and to control the conditions of their 
lives. It is in this sense that the term has been used in the title of 

[285] 



the present volume. The labor movement, says G. D. H. Cole, "is 
at once national and international. It appears in many Common- 
wealths, and in each it has its own special characteristics. It tran- 
scends the borders of Commonwealths ; but in its international group- 
ings it consistently recognizes national divisions. But nationally and 
internationally it has at least two wings or methods of expression — 
an industrial or Trade Union wing, and a political wing, usually 
Socialist in character. It has also in most countries a Cooperative 
wing, more or less loosely attached to either or both of the others. 
The relations between these different wings of the Labor IMovement 
vary from countr^^ to country. Sometimes, as in France, there is 
very little connection between the Socialist Party and the Trade 
Unions: sometimes, as in Great Britain, the Trade Unions largely 
form the political party of Labor: sometimes, as in Germany, the 
Social Democratic Party dominates the Trade Unions: sometimes, 
as in Belgiimi, the political, industrial and cooperative wings of the 
movement are joined inseparably together. Whatever the actual 
form of organization adopted, there is usually a fairly close approxi- 
mation in policy and tactics among the various national movements." 
In one sense, to quote Mr. Cole again, "the modem Labor Movement 
is the reaction of the working class against Capitalism ; but there is 
a more fundamental sense in which it is not a reaction, but the fruit 
of a creative impulse. In the first sense, it is merely defensive and 
protective: it aims merely at maintaining or impro\^g the workers' 
standard of life within the existing economic order. But in the 
more fundamental sense, it is a challenge to the existing order, and 
at least a suggestion of the order which should take its place." 
Comprising as it does many millions of human beings in every 
"civilized" country, the labor movement is at once the most com- 
plex, many-sided, and significant social phenomenon of present 
times. It is a movement of continual change, of kaleidoscopic 
variety, of progression here and retrogression there; a movement 
divided by conflicting theories and coimsels, torn and retarded by 
internal conflict, yet somehow ever making headway by diverse 
paths toward a single undiscemed goal. (See Workers' Control.) 

Labor Norm. In Russia, every^ wage-earner is required to 
turn out the daily standard output fixed for his class and grade of 
work by the valuation committee of his trade union, subject to the 
approval of the People's Commissariat of Labor, representing the 
interests of labor, and the Supreme Council of Public Economy, 
representing the interests of national industr^^ This standard is 

[286] 



known as the "labor norm." A wage earner who falls below the 
standard may be demoted by decision of the valuation committee 
of his union, but he may appeal from that decision to the local and 
the district office of the Commissariat of Labor. The decision of 
the district office is final. 

Labor Outings. As a solution of the problem of supplying 
the extra labor necessary to harvesting operations in the grain belt, 
the United States Department of Labor has proposed that in- 
dustrial establishments should make their not unusual but irregular ' 
suspensions of work at such times and for such periods as would 
permit their employees to engage in suitable seasonal occupations. 
Not only would this assist in solving seasonal problems; it would 
tend to make steadier the work of the industrial establishments them- 
selves. To make up for their shortages of output from these seasonal 
suspensions, the industrial establishments would increase their out- 
put the rest of the year and therefore their demand for labor. For 
workers incapable of doing heavy harvest work, other seasonal 
employments would be possible. (See Agricultural Labor.) 

Labor Party of the United States. See National La^or 
Party. ^ 

Labor Platform of the League of Nations. The Treaty of 
Versailles sets forth nine "methods and principles for regulating 
labor conditions which all industrial communities should endeavor- 
to apply, so far as their special circumstances will permit," and which 
"are well fitted to guide the policy of the League of Nations." 
These nine "methods or principles," representing what has been 
called the Magna Charta of Labor, may be summarized as follows: 
(i) Labor must not be regarded as a commodity; (2) right of associa- 
tion of employees and employers; (3) adequate wage to maintain 
a reasonable standard of living; (4) the eight-hour day or forty- 
eight-hour week; (5) -weekly rest of at least twenty-four hours; 
(6) abolition of child labor; (7) equal pay for equal work re- 
gardless of sex; (8) equitable treatment of all workers, including 
foreigners; (9) a system of state inspection, with representation for 
women. (See International Labor Organization; General 
Labor Conference of the League of Nations.) 

Labor Press. The list of regular periodical publications 
devoted wholly or mainly to labor affairs and concerns is a long and 
varied one. In addition to the journals issued by, and in the interests 
of, individual labor organizations, as described in the entry on Trade 

[287] 



Organs, there are numerous periodicals of more general scope 
which depend for their support upon a working-class clientele. A 
notable example of this class, in the English-speaking field, is the 
*' Daily Herald" of London, with a daily circulation of several hun- 
dred thousand copies. The numerous daily, weekly, or monthly 
periodicals published in the interests of socialism may also be con- 
sidered as essentially a section of the labor press, although their 
clientele includes many besides manual wage-earners. Still another 
and decidedly different section is that composed of the official 
journals and reviews issued by the various national departments and 
bureaus of labor throughout the world. In these, labor affairs are 
considered largely from the administrative and legislative points of 
view. Many of them, however, devote much space to records of 
general changes and tendencies in the labor field ; to reports of special 
investigations into various aspects of the labor problem; to statistics 
on the COST of living, unemployment, changes in wage levels, 
etc.; and to digests of ciurent labor legislation. The "Monthly 
Labor Review" issued by the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics 
is typical of this class. Some of the state industrial commissions 
in this country issue periodicals devoted in the main to a record of 
the commissions' activities and accomplishments. The Interna- 
tional Labor Office of the League of Nations now issues three 
regular periodical publications, in both English and French editions. 
Mention should also be made of the official jotmnals or bulletins 
issued by some of the more important "reform" organizations — 
as for example, the "American Labor Legislative Review," published 
quarterly by the American Association for Labor Legislation. A 
recent development of some importance in connection with the 
American labor press is represented by the Federated Press League — 
a central service or clearing-house for news in the field of international 
labor affairs. While organized primarily in the interests of the labor 
and liberal press, its membership list is open to individual subscribers 
as well. 

Labor Problem. In a general sense, practically every phase 
of the LABOR movement constitutes a "labor problem" of one sort 
or another. But in a particular sense, from the point of view of the 
workers themselves, the single all-embracing labor problem is the 
problem of seciuing control over the ftindamental conditions of 
their life and labor. More concretely stated, it is the problem of 
abolishing the wage system, and the substitution therefor of some 
comprehensive scheme of industrial democracy. "What may be 

[288] 



called the fundamental factors of the modem labor problem," 
according to Adams and Sumner, are *'the wage system, the per- 
manent status of the wage-earning class, the factory system — 
with all which that implies — and the extreme concentration and 
control of wealth in the hands of a very small proportion of the 
population. It is absolutely necessary to keep these fundamental 
conditions firmly in mind; but it is just as necessary to remember 
that, permanent as such institutions may seem, they are but steps 
or. stages in a centuried process of evolution, whose past unfolding 
is as profoundly significant as its future course is fascinating and 
mysterious." (See Workers' Control.) 

Labor Representation Committee Trades Union Congress, 
See British Labor Party. 

Labor Representation Committees. In England, joint com- 
mittees of local trade unions, trade union branches, etc., in dis- 
tricts which elect members to the Imperial Parliament, the function 
of such committees being **to watch over the general interests of 
labor — political and social — both in and out of Parliament. " In some 
cases such a committee combines with the local trades council, 
forming what is really a local labor party, the resulting organiza- 
tion being called a "Trades Council and Labor Representation 
Committee." 

Labor Research Department. Established in 19 12 by the 
Fabian Society of London, as the Fabian Research Department, 
this was later organized as an independent association of labor, 
socialist, and cooperative bodies, together with individual students 
and investigators. The Department acts as a general information 
bureau upon all questions relating to the labor, socialist, and co- 
operative movements, and has special committees of enquiry into a 
number of questions of particular importance. It issues to its 
members a monthly bulletin of news relating to these movements, 
and has published several useful books and pamphlets. The trade 
union work of the Department is directed by the "Trade Union 
Survey," on which are represented many of the largest British 
trade unions. A separate "International Section" was added to 
the Department's activities in 19 19. Headquarters for the Depart- 
ment are maintained in London. 

Labor Reserve. See Reserve of Labor. 

Labor Shortage. See Labor Supply, 



Labor Statistics, Bureau of. See Bureau of Labor Sta- 
tistics. 

Labor Sunday. At its 1909 convention the American Fed- 
eration OP Labor adopted a resolution urging that the churches 
of America be requested to devote part of their services to a presen- 
tation of the labor question on the Sunday preceding Labor Day — 
the first Monday in September. 

Labor Supply. Correctly speaking, this may mean either 
one of two things: (i) The entire energies of the entire working 
population within any given geographical area; or (2) the amount of 
labor that the working population of such area may actually be 
induced to perform under existing conditions and wages. When the 
supply of available labor greatly exceeds the demand at any given 
time, there is said to be a labor surplus or labor glut; when the 
demand greatly exceeds the supply, the resulting condition is called 
a labor shortage. (See Labor Market.) 

Labor Surplus. An unusual excess of the available labor 
supply over the existing demand. An economic condition, due to 
whatever cause, in which two workers are obliged to compete for the 
same job — in other words, a condition in which a labor surplus 
exists — invariably marks a period of retrogression for organized 
labor. It is not merely that a widespread labor surplus means 
unemployment or under-employment, reduced wages, and other 
direct misfortunes for the workers; but more important still, it means 
usually a concerted attack upon the main bulwarks that organized 
labor has built up for its protection during more prosperous periods. 
The problem of eliminating the labor surplus may well be considered 
the basic problem with which trade unionism has to deal. (See 
Cyclical Fluctuations.) 

Labor Theory of Value. As expounded chiefly by Adam 
Smith, Ricardo, and Karl Marx, this is the economic theory that 
thg value of a commodity depends, in the long run, on the amount of 
labor expended in its production. " It is natural," says Adam Smith, 
"that what is usually the produce of two days' labor or two hours* 
labor should be worth double what is usually the produce of one day's 
or one hour's labor." Ricardo speaks of labor "as being the foundation 
of all value, and the relative quantity of labor as almost exclusively 
determining the relative value of commodities"; while according 
to Marx, "the value of a commodity is determined by the quantity 

[290] 



of labor expended during its production." (See Surplus Value 
Theory.) 

Labor Treaties. Formal agreements or covenants, relating 
to labor matters, entered into by two or more countries. Such 
treaties fall into three main groups or classes: (i) Those affecting 
the movement of labor, i.e., emigration and immigration conven- 
tions; (2) those respecting equality or reciprocity of treatment of 
native and alien labor; and (3) those providing for uniform labor 
standards in the signatory countries. Naturally the treaties may 
again be classified according to the subject matter dealt with. As a 
result of various international conferences, held usually at Berne, 
Switzerland, there had been signed early in 19 19 thirty such agree- 
ments between two countries and two agreements between more than 
two countries. (See International Labor Organization.) 

Labor Turnover. In regard to industry as a whole, the 
shifting of workers from job to job. In regard to a particular estab- 
lishment, labor turnover as commonly understood is "the change 
in force due to men leaving. . . . Every worker who leaves the employ 
of a given establishment for whatever reason constitutes a part in 
the turnover of that establishment. The study of labor turnover 
embraces the study of the causes and effects of every termination 
of emplo37ment and the means of preventing such terminations as 
are socially undesirable." Labor turnover is measured in terms of 
the ratio of those who leave their employment in a given period — 
usually assimied to be a year unless otherwise stated — to the average 
number who have been on the active pay roll during the same period. 
In any careful consideration of this subject, it is necessary to distin- 
guish between normal and abnormal turnover. According to D. D. 
Lescohier, ' ' normal turnover occurs when workers leave their employ- 
ment for death, serious or chronic illness, a disabling accident, old 
age, to continue their education, to go into business or on a farm, 
to accept a better position with another employer, or similar reasons. 
Abnormal turnover occurs when the severance of emplojrment is 
due to such causes as careless methods of hiring, discharging, and 
handling men; to wages offered by competing establishments; to 
unhealthy or disagreeable shop conditions; unfair systems of com- 
puting or paying wages ; the wanderlust of workers ; the unreliability 
or unsteadiness of employees, the excessive fluctuation of labor 
demand, and the labor supply. Such turnover seriously decreases 
national production; wastes and destroys labor power; prevents a 
large part of our labor force from developing that efficiency which 

[291] 



is possible to it ; increases unemployment and under-employment ; 
and impairs the quality of the man (and woman) power of the coun- 
try'." It is estimated by the same \\Titer that "fully half our labor 
passes through our industries rather than into them." The reduc- 
tion of labor turnover is perhaps the chief problem that employment 
management has to deal with. (See Mobility of Labor; Job 
Analysis; Force Report.) 

Labor Union. As commonly used today, a generic term 
denoting any organization of wage-earners. At one time it designated 
a certain form of association, usually idealistic or htmianitarian in 
its purposes, which included workers in all crafts and occupations 
in a given locality, employers and professional men being sometimes 
admitted as well. This type of labor organization was comparatively 
short lived, although the industrial union of toda}^ embodies some 
of its principal characteristics. The present-day federal labor 
union, in the American Feder.\tion of Labor, is in many respects 
a small-scale exemplification of this type. (See Trade Union.) 

Labor Unrest. See Industrial Unrest. 

Labor's Memorial Day. As fixed by the American Federa- 
tion OF Labor in 191 1, this is the fourth Sunday in May. It is 
urged that upon this day "the men and women of labor in every 
section of the coimtr>^ should meet and by appropriate ceremonies 
pay tribute to the memory of those who have gone before in the great 
work for humanity." 

Laborer. In general, a manual wage-earner of whatever 
degree of skill. Among those actually engaged in industry, however, 
the term is most commonly used in designation of an unskilled 
worker. In certain trades, the unskilled or semi-skilled assistant to a 
JOURNEYMAN is termed a laborer, although helper is the more com- 
mon designation. 

Laborism. Belief in the paramount rights of labor and in 
the central importance of the labor movement. 

Laborists. Members of working-class organizations, or advo- 
cates of the rights of labor. 

Laborites. In British politics, members of the British Labor 
Party are so called. 

Laissez Faire. In its economic sense, this term denotes a 
policy by which the State refrains from any interference with the 

[292] 



liberty of every individual to dispose of his time and labor in the 
way and on the terms which he may judge most conducive to his 
own interest. In its broader sense, it denotes a policy of non-govern- 
mental interference with the normal occupations and desires of the 
people. It does not necessarily imply a negation of all legislative 
activity, but may be legitimately interpreted in the English sense of 
maintaining fair play and keeping a clear field for the combatants. 
Laissez (aire is founded on the i8th century doctrine of Jus NaturcB, 
or "law of nature" — the natural arrangement and order of things 
which man was continually spoiling by his artificial interference and 
regulation. With specific reference to industrial affairs, the laissez 
/aire philosophy has been thus stated by Professor Hobhouse: 
"Maintain external order, suppress violence, assure men in the 
possession of their property, and enforce the fulfillment of contracts, 
and the rest will go of itself. Each man will be guided by self-interest, 
but interest will lead him along the lines of greatest productivity. 
If all artificial barriers are removed, he will find the occupation which 
best suits his capacities, and this will be the occupation in which 
he will be most productive, and therefore, socially, most valuable. 
He will have to sell his goods to a willing purchaser, therefore he 
must devote himself to the production of things which others need 
— things, therefore, of social value. He will, by preference, make 
that for which he can obtain the highest price, and this will be that 
for which, at the particular time and place, and in relation to his 
particular capacities, there is the greatest need. He will, again, 
find the employer who will pay him best, and that will be the employer 
to whom he can do the best service. Self-interest, if enlightened 
and unfettered, will, in short, lead him to conduct coincident with 
public interest." (See Individualism.) 

Land Question. "The denial of access to land and natural 
resources even when they are unused and unproductive, except at 
a price and under conditions which are practically prohibitive," 
was stated in the staff report of the Federal Commission on Indus- 
trial Relations to be the second principal cause of unemployment 
in the United States. In remedy of this condition the following 
* * basic suggestions ' ' were submitted : " ( i ) Vigorous and unrelenting 
prosecution to regain all land, water power and mineral rights secured 
from the Government by fraud. (2) A general revision of our land 
laws, so as to apply to all future land grants the doctrine of ' superior 
use,' as in the case of water rights in California, and the provision 
for forfeiture in case of actual nonuse. In its simplest form the 
20 [ 293 ] 



doctrine of ' superior use ' implies merely that at the time of making 
the lease the purpose for which the land will be used must be taken 
into consideration, and the use which is of greatest social value 
shall be given preference. (3) The forcing of all unused land into use 
by making the tax on nonproductive land the same as on productive 
land of the same kind, and exempting all improvements." Adherents 
of the SINGLE TAX doctrinc consider the land question, or the private 
monopolization of land values, to be intimately related not only to 
unemployment but to nearly all other phases of the labor problem. 
(See Agrarianism.) 

Landsorganisation i Sverge. This national federation of 
Swedish trade unions, formed in 1899, is the leading labor body of 
Sweden. In 1909 it included twenty-seven national craft federations, 
with 162,000 members. In June, 1920, the membership had increased 
to 280,987. From the first there has been a close alliance between 
the Landsorganisation and the Socialdemokratiska Arbetare-Partiet 
(Social Democratic Labor Party), which was formally organized in 
1889 and is the majority party in the lower government chamber. 
Dislike of this alliance led to the beginning of the syndicalist move- 
ment, which has continued to be an important phase of Swedish 
trade unionism. The number of members in the syndicalist organi- 
zation was 24,000 in 19 19. Both the Federation and the other imions 
suffered severely from the effects of the great general strike of 1909, 
the membership of the Federation falling as low as 80,000 by 19 12. 
The labor movement in Sweden is confronted with powerful organi- 
zations of the employers. Collective bargaining is highly devel- 
oped, and wage agreements are usually made on a national scale. 

Language Branch or Language Local. A type of local 
or SUB-LOCAL which is found (or was formerly found) in certain 
American national or international labor organizations — as for ex- 
ample, the longshoremen's, the carpenters', and the miners' unions, 
and the International Workers of the World — where the 
diversity of foreign-bom workers makes necessary a grouping of 
local union members on the basis of the common language spoken. 

Lapsed Member. Usually a trade union member who has been 
suspended for failure to pay membership dues, fines, assessments, 
or other indebtedness to the union. 

Large -Scale Production. The rather indefinite connotations 
of this term, as used in designation of one of the main characteristics 
of modem industrialism, are thus summarized in L. C. Marshall's 

[294] 



"Readings in Industrial Society": ''Sometimes it means that an 
individual plant (whether manufacturing, agricultural, or commercial) 
utilizes a large amount of capital (and perhaps of labor and land). 
In certain lines of industry, this tendency is so marked that there 
has been an actual diminution in the number of separate plants, 
although there has been a tremendous increase in output. . . . Some- 
times large-scale production means that the massing of capital 
(and perhaps labor and land) has occurred in the form of bringing 
about a single management of several plants of the same kind, 
each of which may or may not have reached the size of maximum 
efficiency. Som_e writers refer to this as 'horizontal combination.' 
. . . Finally, large-scale production may refer to what is known as 
'integration of industry' or 'vertical combination,' which unites 
under one management consecutive processes which have formerly 
been conducted in independent establishments." 

Lay -Off System. In the labor vernacular, to "lay off" a 
worker is to dismiss him from emplo3ment. Generally, though not 
always, the term denotes temporary rather than permanent dis- 
missal. In certain industries particularly subject to seasonal 
FLUCTUATIONS, it is uot uncommon for a trade union to insist upon a 
clause in its agreement with the employer providing for a systematic 
plan of temporarily "laying off" employees, so that unemployment 
will be evenly and fairly distributed during the slack season. Such 
a plan is usually called a "lay-off system." 

Lazy Strike. See Striking on the Job. 

Lead Laws. Legislation, enacted in nearly all European 
countries and in half a dozen prominent states of this country, 
governing the use of lead in industrial trades, so as to prevent poison- 
ing or other injury to the worker. Such laws usually require periodic 
examinations of workers in the more dangerous lead trades. The use 
of white lead in painting is now partially or wholly prohibited in some 
European countries. 

Leader. See Speeding Up. 

League of Nations and Labor. See International Labor 
Organization; General Labor Conference of the League op 
Nations; International Labor Office; Labor Platform of 

THE League of Nations. 

League of Women Workers. See National League of 
Women Workers. 

[295] 



Learner. In an industrial sense, one who is learning a trade 
while working at it, usually under the direction of a journeyman, 
and receiving a small rate of compensation. The term is sometimes 
applied to an apprentice or an improver, but it is more often used 
in those trades where the apprenticeship system does not exist. 

Lease System of Convict Labor. Under this system convicts 
are leased to contractors for specified sums and for fixed periods 
of time, the lessees usually undertaking to clothe, feed, care for, 
and maintain proper discipline among the prisoners while they 
perform such labor as may have been determined by the terms of 
the lease. The labor is generally performed outside the prison 
walls, and is rarely employed in manufacturing, but usually in such 
industries as mining, railroad building, and agricultural pursuits. 
Some of the worst abuses practiced in connection with convict labor 
are associated with the ''lease system." (See Convict Labor Sys- 
tems: Prison Labor.) 

Leaving Certificate. The English counterpart of the Amer- 
ican clearance letter; a written statement given to a departing 
worker, in which the employer states the reason or reasons why the 
employee is leaving. The leaving certificate appears in British indus- 
trial history at least as early as 1697, when no employing master in 
the London hatters trade would take on a new journeyman who did 
not bring with him a satisfactory leaving certificate from his previous 
employer. Like the clearance letter, the leaving certificate is often 
used to BLACKLIST an "undesirable" worker. Also variously known 
as "quittance paper," "character note," and "character." 

Leift, Left Wing. Terms commonly applied to that group or 
element in any movement or body of persons which represents the 
most RADICAL opinion and policies. Thus, the "left-wing socialists" 
or "socialists of the left" form the revolutionary section of the 
socialist movement. They advocate direct action in the indus- 
trial field, are opposed to parliamentarism, and for the most part 
reject compromise measures. Members of "the left" in any move- 
ment or body are often known as "revolutionaries" or "extremists." 
(See Impossibilist; Intransigents.) 

Legal Aid Benefit. A form of mutual insurance by which 
a trade union enables its members to secure legal assistance in 
pressing or defending a court action, or to secure necessary legal 
advice. This form of benefit seems to exist only in the case of a few 
large British national tmions. 

[296] 



Legal Enactment. The phrase used by Mr. and Mrs. Webb 
in designation of one of the three distinct levers or instruments with 
which TRADE UNIONISM secks to enforce its regulations — the other 
two being mutual insurance and collective bargaining. The 
method of legal enactment is, briefly, the method of influencing 
legislative bodies toward the enactment of laws favorable to the 
interests of the working classes. It is a method that plays a much 
more important part in the European labor movement than in that 
of the United States. The advantages and disadvantages of this 
method are summarized in George O'Brien's "Labor Organization" 
as follows: "Against it may be pleaded the inevitable slowness 
with which legislation progresses, especially in a country where the 
action of the legislature is constantly made dependent on the conver- 
sion of public opinion to a certain point of view. On this account 
remedial legislation at the present day is frequently delayed for many 
years owing to the unripe state of public opinion. Moreover, the 
further objection may be urged that legal regulation necessarily 
lacks precision owing to the fact that an Act of Parliament goes 
through many stages of amendment at the hands of those who are 
expert neither in the art of draftsmanship nor in the knowledge of 
the industrial conditions affected. ... As against these disadvantages 
from which the method of legal enactment suffers it enjoys certain 
advantages. In the first place it secures uniformity, or in other 
words, that all employers are bound by the same regulations quite 
irrespective of the strategical strength of the workmen's organiza- 
tions which stand opposed to them. Moreover, it avoids waste and 
friction, inasmuch as it is imposed on the trade by an outside author- 
ity, and has not to be arrived at as collective agreements frequently 
have after the waste, extravagance, and suffering of a prolonged 
strike. Lastly, it has the supreme advantage over the method of 
collective bargaining that it is equally powerful to protect the weak 
workmen as well as the strong." (See Political Action; Labor 
Legislation; Sanitation and Safety; Normal Day.) 

Legislation. See Labor Legislation. 

Legislative Committee. As maintained by some of the more 
important American national or international unions and 
by the American Federation op Labor this is a coinmittee 
which endeavors to secure the enactment by Congress of pro- 
posed legislation in the interests of labor, and to look after labor 
interests in connection with other legislation before Congress. This 
committee may be made up of members of the executive council, 

[297] 



or it may be a special committee elected by the convention at its 
annual session. In the case of the elected committee one member 
will be designated as chairman. It will be his duty to be present at 
the capital during the entire session of the legislature to watch the 
interests of the laborers in the bills before the session and to call 
in his associates when needed. A similar function in connection with 
state and municipal legislative bodies is performed by the state 
FEDERATIONS OF LABOR and the CITY CENTRALS. (See Labor Lobby.) 

Leitch Plan. As formulated by John Leitch, an industrial 
management expert, this is a plan of employee representation 
which provides for the formation in large industrial plants of a sys- 
tem of "government" patterned directly after that of the United 
States. The executive officers of the industry form the "cabinet," 
which is primarily an executive body with veto powers. The ' * senate ' ' 
is made up of foremen, departmental heads, and under-executives. 
The "house of representatives" is elected by secret ballot by the 
whole body of workers. This joint organization holds regular meet- 
ings for the discussion of general policy, the formulation of more 
efficient or economical production methods, the adjustment of work- 
ers' grievances, etc. (See Industrial Democracy.) 

Lemieux Act. See Canadian Industrial Disputes Inves- 
tigation Act. 

Lenin's Twenty -One Conditions. At the second congress 
of the Communist Internationale, held at Moscow in July, 1920, 
there was drawn up a list of twenty-one conditions which political 
labor groups wishing to adhere to the third Internationale miust 
fulfill. These conditions are of the most drastic character, requiring 
the purging from affiliated organizations of all reformist and "cen- 
trist" elements, the changing of party names from "socialist" to 
"communist," active warfare against all capitalistic institutions, full 
support of the Soviet Republic, and various other matters of similar 
uncompromising nature. These conditions are variously known as 
"Lenin's twenty-one conditions," the "twenty-one articles of 
faith," the "Moscow conditions," etc. 

Lever Act. A piece of war-time legislation enacted by Con- 
gress in August, 191 7, its avowed purpose being "to provide further 
for the national security and defense by encoiu-aging the produc- 
tion, conserving the supply, and controlling the distribution of 
food products and fuel." Drastic and far-reaching powers to fix 
prices, take over and operate plants, and otherwise control produc- 

[298] 



tion, distribution, and consumption, were given to the President 
under this legislation. Notwithstanding repeated assurances that 
the Act would not be used as an anti-strike weapon in the legitimate 
efforts of organized labor, it was made the basis for a sweeping 
Federal injunction against officers of the United Mine Workers 
in November, 1919, and the national strike of coal-miners was thus 
broken. Somewhat more than a year later the Supreme Court held 
that the Act provided no effectual basis for prosecution of coal 
OPERATORS and other employers on the charge of war-time profiteering. 

Lib -Labs. A popular nickname for those who support a mix- 
ture of LIBERAL and labor policies in English politics, or for labor 
MEMBERS in Parliament who lean toward liberalism. 

Liberal, Liberalism. From the Latin liber and liberalts, mean- 
ing "free" or ** befitting a freeman." In the modem political sense, 
a liberal is one favorable to democratic reforms and progressive 
measures that do not involve fundamental change in the existing 
order of things. "The liberal," according to "The Freeman," 
"believes that the State is essentially social and is all for improving 
it by political methods so that it may function according to what he 
believes to be its original intention. Hence, he is interested in poli- 
tics, takes them seriously, goes at them hopefully, and believes in 
them as an instrument of social welfare and progress. He is politically 
minded, with an incurable interest in reform, putting good men in 
office, independent administrations, and quite frequently in third 
party movements." Liberalism is the political philosophy expressive 
of this attitude or belief. The liberal position is that of middle 
ground between the conservative, on the one hand, and the radical 
on the other. (See Manchester School; Centre; Lib-Labs.) 

Lightning Strike. One that is called before there can be any 
chance for negotiation or discussion over differences, the object 
being to produce a complete and sudden paralysis of an industry 
or plant, in the hope of forcing an equally summary capitulation. 

Limitation of Apprentices. See Apprenticeship. 

Limitation of Numbers. See Restriction op Numbers. 

Limitation of Output. "There has always been a strong 
tendency among labor organizations," says the Report of the Federal 
Industrial Commission, "to discourage exertion beyond a certain 
limit. The tendency does not always express itself in formal rules. 
On the contrary, it appears chiefly in the silent, or at least informal, 

[299I 



pressure of working-class opinion. It is occasionally embodied in 
rules which distinctly forbid the accomplishment of more than a 
fixed amount of work in a given time ; but such regulations are always 
felt by employers, and almost always by other persons who are not 
of the wage- working class, to be obviously unjust, short-sighted and 
socially injurious. This adverse public opinion outside the unions 
themselves has doubtless had some influence in discouraging such 
applications of the principle. These rules have not by any means, 
however, absolutely disappeared." A substantially similar limitation 
may be applied, under the piece work basis, by limiting the amount 
which a worker may earn in a day or week. Another form of limi- 
tation is to forbid the operation of more than one automatic machine 
by a . single worker. Limitation of output is also accomplished 
through trade union action by prohibiting piece work and bonus 
SYSTEMS ; by limiting the number of working hours per day or week, 
and restricting overtime; and by regulations in regard to the divi- 
sion OF LABOR. Such forms of limitation of output as ca' canny 
and striking on the job are without trade imion sanction, and are 
condemned by the great majority of unionists. It is impossible to 
do more than merely mention here the nimierous arguments lu-ged 
by trade unionists in justification of a deliberately regulated produc- 
tion. Perhaps the argument most frequently advanced is that such 
a policy constitutes a necessary defense against speeding up, with 
its attendant evils of price cutting and overstrain. It is also 
conceived to be necessary to prevent a direct lowering of the standard 
rate of pay. "The standard rate, whatever terms may be used 
in stating it, means at bottom so much pay for so much output. 
To permit individuals to give, for any certain payment, a larger 
product than the standard current in the trade, is to revert at once 
to the individual bargain." In a less direct way limitation of output 
is conceived to affect wages by providing work for the unemployed. 
*'The competition of the unemployed is the great obstacle in the 
way of raising wages. If work can be found for them, jobs may be 
made to hunt men instead of men's hunting jobs. If those who are 
employed work excessively, it is claimed, they selfishly take to them- 
selves work which ought to be left for the less fortunate." Still an- 
other economic argument is based upon the idea of over-production, 
and is stated in the entry under that heading. The Foster Report, 
based upon an exhaustive investigation of British industry in 19 19, 
found four main factors tending to limitation of output on the work- 
ers' part, as follows: "The fear of unemployment — which naturally 
inclines the operative to make his work last as long as possible; 

[300] 



(2) disinclination to make unrestricted profit for private employers; 

(3) lack of interest owing to non-participation in the control of in- 
dustry; (4) inefficiency, both managerial and operative." While 
limitation of output has been dealt with above exclusively as a 
workers' policy, the important fact should not be overlooked that it 
is even more generally and essentially an employers* policy. "The 
plain fact, of course," as G. D. H. Cole points out, "is that, while 
capitalist production for profit and the wage system continue to 
exist, 'restriction of output' by both employers and workers will 
also continue, though it may occur to a greater or less extent. But 
perhaps a moment's reflection will persuade those who are now so 
anxious to decry Labor for its restrictive policy that the argument 
really cuts both ways, and that workmen have at least as much jus- 
tification for what they do as employers. In a sense, both are victims 
of a system, and, in a larger sense, the community is still more a 
victim." (See Lump of Labor Theory; Darg; Stint.) 

List. See Price List, 

List System. See London Dock Scheme. 

Little Master or Small Master. A small-scale employer of 
labor, particularly in industries where automatic machinery is not 
largely used. He is usually a contractor, employing hand labor at 
low wages, long hours, and under insanitary and unwholesome con- 
ditions. Also called "garret master" or "garret boss," and "fog- 
ger." (See Sweating System; Sweater; Contract System.) 

Liverpool Dock Scheme. Like the London dock scheme, 
this is a systematic effort toward the decasualization of dock labor. 
As initiated in 191 2, every dock worker in Liverpool was registered 
and given a metal tally bearing his registration number, and it was 
agreed that for the future no one should be employed without a 
tally. A joint committee, on which employers and employees were 
equally represented, was entrusted with the duty of issuing fresh 
tallies and also of erecting surplus hiring stands at certain intervals 
along the docks where alone extra workers could be taken on after 
the regular morning call. A further reform was instituted securing 
the payment of wages through a central clearing-house, thus making 
it unnecessary for the employee to travel from one employer to 
another in collecting his weekly wages. This plan is sometimes 
referred to as the " tally system." It has proved effective in miti- 
gating the many evils associated with casual labor among the dock 
workers of Liverpool. 

[301] 



Living -In System. The plan, now chiefly met with in domes- 
tic SERVICE but still common in British comxmercial establishments, 
under which employees live on the premises where they work, re- 
ceiving board and lodging in part pa^mient of wages. It is essentially 
a part of the truck system. 

Living Levels. See Family Budget. 

Living Wage. As commonly used, this may denote either 
(i) the bare minimum necessary to sustain the vital physical func- 
tions of the wage-earner and his family, known as a subsistence 
wage; or, (2) such a minimum plus a small allowance for education, 
recreation, reading matter, extra clothing, a few table luxuries, etc. 
While the term is often used in connection with a daily or weekly 
wage, the hazards and fluctuations of industry are such that it is 
difficult to say whether a given wage is or is not a "li\dng wage" 
without reference to the yearly aggregate of the workers' earnings. 
The increasing popular acceptance of the theory that every worker 
should be guaranteed a "living wage" is based not so much on 
altruism or humanity as on the common conviction that "the welfare 
of the community as a whole requires that no section of workers 
should be reduced to conditions which are positively inconsistent 
with industrial or civic efhciency." (See Cost of Living; Standard 
OF Living; Minimum Subsistence Level; Minimum Comfort 
Level; Family Budget; Minimum Wage.) 

Loan Card. In the case of trade unions which permit mem- 
bers to make small emergency loans from the union funds, a member 
making such a loan is provided with a card showing the date and 
amount of the loan and the various installment repayments imtil the 
transaction is settled. (See Combination Card.) 

Lobby. See Labor Lobby. 

Lobster Shift. In some industries this term is applied to 
a special shift which fills the interval between the regular day and 
night shifts. (See Shift System.) 

Local. A trade union of local character, including only mem- 
bers who live and Vvork in one town or locality, is commonly so 
called in the United States. Usually the local is a subordinate unit 
of a national or international union. The latter may have 
but one local in a city, or it may have several. In the latter case, 
membership is sometimes divided among the several locals in accord- 
ance with the different kinds of work or the different kinds of articles 

[ 302 ] 



produced in a single industry; sometimes according to sex, color, or 
nationality; sometimes for purely administrative purposes, without 
regard to any of the above-mentioned distinctions. In a historical 
sense, the local is the source and spring of the whole labor movement. 
"It was by the alliance of existing local unions for mutual encourage- 
ment and support that the great national organizations came into 
existence. Local unions of stone-cutters, of carpenters, of hatters, 
and of printers existed for many years before organization on a larger 
scale was seriously attempted. Even nowadays, though labor organ- 
izations come more with taking thought than formerly, and less as 
the spontaneous outgrowth of the internal conditions of their trades, 
it is seldom attempted to build a national union in any other way 
than by uniting existing locals. . . But although the local is histori- 
cally the primary phenomenon, and the national union is secondary, 
a very large proportion of the local unions which exist today, and a 
larger proportion of those which from day to day come into exist- 
ence, are in fact the offspring of national organizations. Some of 
the stronger national unions maintain paid organizers, who devote 
either the whole or some portion of their time to travelling from 
place to place, encouraging and strengthening existing locals of their 
trade, and, where none exist, establishing them. . . The constitutions 
of national unions usually provide that local unions may be estab- 
lished by not less than five, seven (the commonest nimiber), or ten 
workers at the particular craft or in the particular industry concerned. 
It is often added that the local can not be dissolved so long as a 
given number of members, usually the same number that is required 
for establishing the local, are willing to retain the charter. In many 
unions, when a local already exists in a place, its consent must be 
asked for before a second can be established. If it objects, however, 
the GENERAL EXECUTIVE BOARD oftcn has powcr to overrule its 
objections. One or two national unions never establish more than 
one local in a place. . . Each local union, even when subordinate to a 
national organization, is a self-governing unit. Its theoretical 
relation to the national body is similar to that of one of oiu* states 
to the United States. The local body has power to do anything 
which is not specifically forbidden in the national constitution. Rates 
of wages are, of necessity, matters of local consideration in a majority 
of trades. Hoiu*s of labor are also fixed locally, in many trades, 
according to local conditions. Even the unions which have national 
laws to limit hours can not always enforce them in all places, and 
they are glad to have hours shortened by their locals beyond the 
national requirement. The regulation of apprenticeship is left by 

[3^3] 



many unions to the locals; and even when national rules are made, 
the locals often make further restrictions. A few national unions 
fix INITIATION FEES and MEMBERSHIP DUES, but in most cases the 
locals fix them, either without any restriction or subject to a maxi- 
mimi or a minimum limit. Locals levy assessments upon their mem- 
bers, and inflict fines and other forms of discipline. Hardly any 
restriction is placed upon the power to collect local assessments, 
except that in a few cases it is forbidden to raise them to support 
strikes unauthorized by the national officers. In the matter of dis- 
cipline there is usually an appeal to the national authorities, and a 
few tmions forbid the imposition of a fine above a certain amount 
without the approval of the national executive board. In ordinary 
cases, however, in most organizations, the local unions do what is 
right in their own eyes."" Generally, all the locals of a national union 
are numbered, and each local is known by its particular munber — 
in connection with the name of the national organization. The locals 
of some national imions are called lodges; while in some of the 
RAILWAY BROTHERHOODS they are known as divisions. In England 
the common designation is branch, although "lodge" is frequently 
used. In relation to the national union, locals are often spoken of 
as "subordinate unions" (or "subordinate lodges," "subordinate 
divisions," etc.); in relation to one another, within a single national 
organization, the term "sister unions" (or "sister lodges") is the 
usual one. (See Federal Labor Union; Local Trade Union; 
Independent Local; Language Branch; Sub-Local; Trade 
Club; Shop Union; Trade Union Government — Local; City 
Central; District Council; Joint Council; Trades Council; 
Big Six.) 

Local Autonomy. See Autonomy. 

Local By-Laws. See By-Laws. 

Local Central Body. See Central Body. 

Local'Department Councils. See Department Councils. 

Local Label Departments. See Union Label Leagues. 

Local Labor Parties. British organizations which bring 
together (for effective political work in the interest of labor candi- 
dates and measures) local trade unions, trade vmion branches, 
socialist societies, and individuals who have subscribed to the con- 
stitution of the British Labor Party. In some districts the local 
labor party exists along with the local trades council, the two gen- 

[ 304 ] 



erally working in cooperation. But when one or the other is missing, 
the existent body usually fulfills some if not all of the functions of 
the other body. The number of local labor parties has greatly 
increased since the admission in 19 18 of workers "by brain" as well 
as "by hand" to the British Labor Party; and there are now about 
one thousand such organizations affiliated with the B. L. P. (See 
Labor Representation Committees.) 

Local Lodge. See Lodge. 

Local Sick Funds. See Sickness Insurance. 

Local Trade Union. While any local of a national trade 
union is commonly referred to as a "local union" or "local trade 
union," within the American Federation of Labor the latter 
term specifically denotes a directly affiliated body made up of workers 
in a single town or locality engaged at a single craft or industry which 
is not organized nationally. In places where there are not enough 
such workers to organize a local trade union, as many as there are 
may join a federal labor union in their locality. Both local 
trade unions and federal trade unions, in this specific sense, are char- 
tered by and affiliate directly with the A. F. of L., and this latter 
organization bears the same relation to them as does a national 
or international union to its local branches. Local trade unions 
are designated by the name of their craft and a ntunber — as for 
example, "Slate Workers, No. 151 78." The chief purpose of a local 
trade union is to recruit and hold the members of a craft or trade 
in a particular locality until the formation of a national union of 
workers in such craft or trade becomes possible — in which case the 
local trade union passes from the jurisdiction of the A. F. of L. to 
that of the national union, becoming a local of the latter. A con- 
siderable number of workers in Hawaii, the Philippines, Porto Rico, 
etc., are organized in local trade unions and federal labor unions 
directly affiliated with the A. F. of L. 

Localists. See Freie Are e iter-Union Deutschlands. 

Localization of Industry. The marked tendency of specific 
industries to centralize or concentrate within a certain district, or 
districts, of a country is usually so called. Some of the various 
advantages which influence the localization of industries may be 
stated as follows: (i) Nearness to materials; (2) nearness to markets; 
(3) water-power; (4) a favorable climate; (5) a supply of labor; 
(6) capital available for investment in manufactures; (7) the mo- 

[305] 



mentiim of an early start; (8) the habit of industrial imitation; (9) 
economic advantages of specialized centres. (See Territorial 
Division of Labor; Specialization; Decentralization of In- 
dustry.) 

Lockout. The temporary closing down of a factory or an 
industry in order to force the workers to agree to conditions dictated 
by the employing interest, or in retaliation for offensive policies or 
practices on the workers' part. It may be likened to a strike on 
the part of employers; indeed the only practical difference between 
a strike and a lockout lies generally in the matter of initiative. If the 
employees make the fost move, it is a strike; if the employer acts 
first, it is a lockout. The essential point in either case is the matter 
in dispute. Recognizing this fact, the Massachusetts Bureau of 
Labor some time ago proposed a new classification on the basis of 
the party that raised the point about which the issue centres or that 
first makes the demand for change to which the other party refuses 
assent. This eliminates the difference between "strike" and "lock- 
out," and so it has been proposed that the terms be dropped. As 
substitutes this department has suggested the terms "attack strike" 
and "defense strike." An attack strike is one in which "cessation 
of employment results from a movement begim in the first instance 
by the employees"; a defense strike is one in which "cessation of 
employment results from the initiative taken by the employer in 
making some change in the conditions of employment." This dis- 
tinction is reinforced by certain definitions of "lockout" found in 
some trade union constitutions. Thus the metal core makers declare 
that the requirement by an employer "to sign contracts, or to work 
for store pay, or to quit the union or the shop, shall constitute a 
lockout if endorsed in accordance with law"; while the piano and 
organ workers state that "a declaration on the part of an employer 
or combination of employers to the effect that their employees must 
cease their connection with the imion or cease to work, or any com- 
bination entered into by any nimiber of employers for the purpose 
of throwing their employees out of employment without any cause 
or action on their part, shall be deemed a lockout." These and other 
unions do not consider that a reduction of wages constitutes a lockout. 

Lockwood Committee. The Joint Legislative Housing Com- 
mittee, created in 1920 by the New York state legislature, was so 
called because of the fact that State Senator Charles C. Lockwood 
was its chairman. The purpose of the Committee was to investi- 
gate the reasons for the high cost of building in New York City. 

[306] 



Sittings were begun on October 20, and under the leadership of 
Samuel Untermyer, who volunteered his services as chief counsel, 
many spectacular discoveries were made. It was found that the 
building-trades employers and the building-trades unions had 
established a compact to eliminate competition on both sides. It 
was shown that Robert P. Brindell, president of the New York 
Building Trades Council, had received huge sums from contractors 
and others, for ulterior purposes. It was also discovered that both 
contractors and building-material firms had illegally combined to 
fix prices on an exorbitant basis. In addition to these findings the 
Lockwood Committee exposed the means by which the open shop 
policy of the steel companies and of the National Erectors' Associa- 
tion had handicapped building operations in New York City. Sev- 
eral criminal prosecutions and convictions of trade union officials 
(notably that of Brindell) have already been based on the committee's 
revelations. 

Lodge. In some national labor organizations of the United 
States and Great Britain which are patterned on masonic or other 
fraternal orders, the central executive body is known as the "grand 
lodge," while the minor units are called "local lodges," "sub-lodges," 
or "subordinate lodges" (in relation to the central body) and "sister 
lodges" (in relation to one another). Subordinate lodges usually 
correspond to locals in other national unions; but in the case of 
some of the American railway brotherhoods, they do not embrace 
the workers in a certain locality but those employed on a particular 
unit of a railway system. The "district lodge" corresponds to the 
usual DISTRICT UNION or DISTRICT COUNCIL in national unions which 
have this form of organization. 

Log. See Price List. 

Log System of Rate -Making. As followed in the garment- 
making trades, the "log system" is a plan of fixing piece work 
rates which involves the subdivision of the garment into parts for 
rate-making purposes and the setting of a rate on each specific part. 
The rate, as far as practicable, is based upon the number of labor 
hours consumed in the making of the specific part. The final piece 
rate paid is the equivalent of the number of labor hours multiplied 
by the standard hourly rate of pay for the particular kind of work. 
The advantage of the log system consists in the fact that changes 
in style (which very frequently amount only to changes in details) 
do not involve a reappraisal of the entire garment, but only of cer- 
tain parts of it. 

[307] 



London Dock Scheme. An attempt toward the decasual- 
IZATION of dock labor, sometimes called the "list system." Under 
this plan, every dock worker is classified in one of four groups, as 
follows: (i) Permanent laborers, with a guaranteed weekly wage; 

(2) registered or "A" men, also with a guaranteed weekly wage; 

(3) preference or "B" men, with a guaranteed hourly wage; (4) 
second preference, or "C" men (the "casuals"), at the same rate as 
the "B " men. The upper classes are recruited from the best of the 
classes below. For the purposes of employment the entire dock 
system is divided into five "controls," which are subdivided into 
forty-five departments. A certain number of "B " men are assigned 
to each department. Daily reports of men available or required in 
each class are made by the head of each department to the super- 
intendent of the dock, and on the basis of these reports the labor 
supply is distributed for the following day. (See Liverpool Dock 
Scheme.) 

Long Turn. It has for many years been customary for large 
numbers of workers in the American steel industry to work twelve 
hours a day, often for seven days a week. This makes it possible 
to carry on continuous operations with only two shifts of workers. 
When the shifts are changed or "rotated" — that is to say, when the 
day workers go on night duty, and vice versa — one of the groups 
or shifts is required to put in what is called the "long tiun" of 
twenty-four hours' continuous duty. For example, if the shifts are 
changed on Sunday night, those who have been on the day shift 
work all day Sunday and all Sunday night, and the former night 
shift then starts in Monday morning on the day shift. In some 
plants the odd twelve hours to be filled in when shifts are changed 
is divided among the two shifts, so that each group works eighteen 
hours instead of one group working twenty-four. However, the 
net gain to the man who puts in eighteen hours of consecutive work 
once a week, instead of twenty-fovir hours once every two weeks, is 
not readily apparent. The "long turn," like all other barbaric sur- 
vivals in industry, can of course only be forced upon workers who 
are w^holly or largely unorganized — as is the case with the steel 
workers. (See Shift System.) 

Longshoremen. While this term properly refers to all classes 
of dock or wharf labor, including skilled mechanics and engineers, 
it more commonly denotes the unskilled workers engaged in loading 
and unloading vessels — the class usually known in England as 
dockers. (See Stevedore System; Dock Wollopers; Shenan- 
GOEs; Shape.) 

[308] 



Loyal Legion of Loggers and Lumbermen. The origin and 
nature of this organization are explained in the 1920 report of the 
Naturalization Bureau as follows: "Dining the war great diffi- 
culty was experienced in getting out spruce from the northwest 
woods for use in aeroplane production. So much opposition was en- 
countered from those who endeavored to obstruct the Government 
in its successful prosecution of the war that it became necessary 
to organize patriotic employers and employees of the logging and 
lumbering industry to combat this menace. Thus, with the coopera- 
tion of the War Department, the Loyal Legion of Loggers and 
Lumbermen came into being [in the stmimer of 19 17]. Primarily 
established to promote unity of interest and efficiency in the rapidity 
of output to help win the war, the organization was found to be 
of such great value to both employer and employee that it was con- 
tinued as mutually beneficial after hostilities ceased. The *Fotu--L's' 
organization, as it is commonly called, requires all its members to 
be American citizens or to have declared their intention to become 
such. Its territory includes the States of Washington, Oregon, 
Idaho, and Montana, throughout which approximately 500 locals 
have been organized." Made up as it is of both employers and work- 
ers, the "Four-L's" is not a labor organization in the usual sense of 
that term. Its most obvious purpose is to serve as a back-fire to the 
I. W, W. movement. 

Luddites. Riotous bands of manual workers in England 
who, in 1811-16, under some sort of organization, went about des- 
troying textile machinery and sometimes wrecking factories. The 
centre of the Luddite movement was at Nottingham, though it 
extended in varying degree throughout most of the country. 

Lumberjack. Nickname for a laborer employed in large- 
scale lumbering operations. 

Lump of Labor Theory. A kind of antithesis to the wage 
FUND THEORY, which trade unionists sometimes urge in defending 
the policy of limitation of output. Roughly speaking, from the 
worker's point of view, there is a fairly definite amount of labor to 
be performed at any given time, irrespective of the cost of produc- 
tion or the selling price of the product. If the pace of production 
is voluntarily slackened, a larger ntimber of workers will be required. 
Thus, soldiering or working below the normal standard of efficiency 
is justified on the ground that the total volume of employment is 
thereby increased, with resulting advantage to the labor group as a 
whole. This is sometimes called the "work fund theory"; while a 

[309] 



more detailed and ''scientific" elaboration of the same idea is known 
as the "fixed group demand theory." 

Lumper, Lumping, Lump -Work. In certain trades, par- 
ticularly the various building industries, the term "lumper" is 
applied to a sub-contractor who takes over a part of the work from 
the regular contractor, and agrees to do this work for a specified 
lump simi within a specified time. This process is known as "lump- 
ing," and the work thus taken over is called "lump- work" or "esti- 
mate work." "The sub-contractors are likely to be small employers 
of little standing in the trade, or a group of journeymen who have 
formed a permanent or temporary partnership, and who intend to 
work the job themselves, and hope to make an added profit by the 
violation of union rules." Trade union hostility is rapidly causing 
the "lump-work" system to disappear. (See Sub-Contracting.) 

Lusker, Lusking. Slang terms derived from the name of 
C. R. Lusk, a state senator of New York who in 1919-20 headed a 
state legislative committee for investigating socialist and radical 
activities. In socialistic parlance, "lusking" is the pursuance of 
inquisitorial and terroristic methods in dealing with social reform 
movements; and a "lusker" is any public oflficial who pursues such 
methods. 

Luxemburg Trade Union Commission. See Commission 
Syndicale de Luxembourg. 

Lying -in -Benefits. See Maternity Insurance. 



M 



Machine Question. In industry, the adoption of machinery 
which supersedes hand production, or of improved machinery or 
improved technical processes which supersede old methods, invari- 
ably opens up many sources of conflict not only between the workers 
and their employer but between one union and another. A new 
DIVISION OF LABOR is usually involved; new wage scales must be 
formulated; many skilled workers may find their occupation gone; 
questions over the right of different unions to jurisdiction over the 
new process or operation generally arise. With specific reference 
to the relations between employers and workers, the introduction 
of new machinery or processes makes necessary the formulation of 
a new policy on the part of the trade union involved, and this policy 
must be harmonized with the employer's plans. "Thus it must be 
decided whether or not the union shall oppose the new process. 
If unopposed, shall the union maintain control over it, and to what 
extent, if any, shall the union profit by it? Shall the men receive 
all of the benefit resulting from economies in the new process; or 
shall they receive a part, and if so, what part; or, shall all of the 
benefit go to the employer; or, where the new process results in the 
lessening of the skill required by the workmen, shall the latter sub- 
mit to an actual reduction in wages ? ' ' While these questions are often 
amicably settled by collective bargaining, they occasionally lead 
to long and bitter struggles. "It is probably not far wrong to say that 
trade unionists universally regard the introduction of new machinery 
as a misfortune. With the possible exception of a very few indus- 
tries, like cotton manufacture, in which machine production has 
already been long and highly developed, a new machine always ap- 
pears to the workingman as a displacer of men, a creator of unem- 
ployment, a depresser of wages. Trade union leaders, even when 
they express their acceptance of the advance of machine production 
as a necessary feature of social progress, usually manifest the feeling 
that, if it is not inevitably at the expense of the workingman, it at 
least increases the difficulty of maintaining his economic position. 
It is doubtful whether any union which felt strong enough to keep 

[311] 



machinery out of its trade ever submitted without a contest to the 
introduction of it. " But organized labor has learned by costly experi- 
ence the futility of fighting against the machine as such; and such 
difficulties as now arise belong for the most part in the realm of wage 
adjustments, the division of labor, and trade union jurisdiction. 
The unions that have fared best in their dealings with machinery 
are those that have frankly and promptly recognized the inevitable- 
ness of it, and have devoted their energies, not to the hopeless task 
of preventing the use of it, but to regulating the manner of use. 
(See Dilution of Labor; Two-Machine System; Introduction 
OF New Processes.) 

McNamara Case. An historic episode in American labor 
annals. In 191 1 J. J. McNamara, Secretary of the International 
Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers, and his brother, 
J. B. McNamara, were indicted and tried on a charge of dynamiting 
the Los Angeles "Times" building, which resulted in a heavy loss 
of life. Under the impression that the case was a "frame-up," wide 
interest was aroused in labor circles and a large fund was collected 
to support the defendants. Conservative labor leaders who had 
rallied to the McNamaras' cause were thrown into confusion by the 
defendants' confession of guilt, which led to a life sentence for one 
brother and a long term imprisonment for the other. (See Violence 
IN the Labor Movement.) 

Madras Labor Union. See India, Labor Organization in. 

Magna Charta of Labor. See Labor Platform of the 
League of Nations. 

Maisons des Ouvriers. As found in some of the larger French 
industrial centres, these are buildings which serve as headquarters 
for all local or regional trade union activities. They are usually 
built and maintained by the local bourses du travail. 

Maisons du Peuple. In Belgium and France, cooperative 
bakeries and distributive societies, including thousands of workmen 
of every calling. A part of their profits is returned to the individual 
constuners in the form of checks exchangeable for bread or other 
articles, part is reserved for educational, propagandist, and political 
purposes; and part is returned to employees as a dividend on wages. 

Malingering or Malingery. In an industrial sense, the 
feigning of illness or disability by an individual worker, in order 

[312] 



to secure the advantage of sick benefits, accident compensation, 
etc., or in order to shirk a required task while on duty. One who thus 
feigns or shams illness is a "malingerer." All trade unions that pay 
sick or disability benefits have more or less stringent methods for the 
detection of malingering. Thus, the constitution of the Iron Hold- 
ers' Union provides that sick members must be visited each week 
by a "sick committee" of at least two persons, and the findings 
of the committee must be reported at the regular meeting of the union. 
A local union may also provide in its by-laws that a physician's 
certificate shall be furnished before sick benefits are paid. (See 
Waiting Period.) 

Mais. Members of amalgamated societies or associations are 
often thus nicknamed in England. 

Malthusianism. The doctrine set forth by T. R. Malthus in 
his "Essay on the Principle of Population" (1798), to the effect 
that population tends to outstrip the available food supply in the 
absence of such positive checks as war, famine, poverty, and disease, 
or such negative checks as celibacy and moral restraint. The so- 
called IRON LAW OF WAGES was largely based upon this theory; 
and in conjtmction with the wage fund theory it was once a favorite 
argument directed toward exposing the futility of working-class 
efforts to raise wages through organization and combination. Op- 
ponents of trade unions, say Mr. and Mrs. Webb, long delighted in 
pointing out that "if combination were for a time to raise wages, 
the growth of the wage-fund would be unnaturally retarded, whilst 
a fictitious stimulus would be given to population by the momentary 
enrichment of the laboring class. A diminished demand for labor 
would coincide with an increased supply. The laborer's wages would 
be forced down to starvation-point ; and his last state would be worse 
than his first." Malthusianism, or the "population principle" as it 
is sometimes called, now occupies a prominent place in the economic 
"discard." 

Management Sharing. See Employee Representation. 

Manchester Building Guild. A recently formed federation 
of the organized building trades of Manchester, England, which 
has concluded arrangements to erect a number of houses for that 
municipality. The guild will give a definite estimate of the cost for 
each type of house to be built, which must be approved by the local 
authority and the national Ministry of Health. The guild will 
receive a lump sum of £40 ($195, par) per house, plus six per cent 

[313] 



of the ''prime cost" of the house. The Cooperative Wholesale 
Society is to supply the materials, and the Cooperative Ins-urance 
Society is guaranteeing the ability of the Manchester Guild to com- 
plete its contracts. A guild similar to the Manchester Guild is being 
formed in the London building trades. 

Mandatory Injunction. As occasionally issued in labor 
disputes, this is a form of injunction which seeks to compel the 
performance of certain acts or services. In several cases the Federal 
courts have issued injunctions commanding employees of railways to 
perform their customary duties as long as they remained in employ- 
ment. Such injunctions have usually been issued in cases where the 
RAILWAY BOYCOTT was rcsortcd to. 

Manual Labor. A rough designation for any form of work 
which is wholly or chiefly of a physical character. Also a collective 
designation for those whose daily work is of this nature. According 
to the recent report of a British social research society, "the male 
manual workers are that race of beings who soil their hands and their 
clothing by handling tools, manufactruing machinery, fetching 
and carrying materials; they use the muscles of the hands, the arms, 
the legs, and the body; their work, as a rule, is routine drudgery 
making little demand upon mind or heart. With these male manual 
workers we include their womenfolk in the homes, and also those 
women who are doing work similar to that of the men." Other col- 
lective designations for the workers of this class are "toilers," 
"masses," "common people," "poor," "lower classes," "prole- 
tariat," "labor," etc. 

Manual Training. See Industrial Education. 

Margin of Idleness. See Fringe of Unemployed. 

Market Boards. In the American clothing trade, these are 
bodies representative of the organized employers and the organized 
workers which meet in each of the great clothing-making centres — 
Chicago, New York, Rochester, and Baltimore — to discuss and settle 
problems concerning joint interests which affect the entire local 
market. 

Marque Syndicale. The French equivalent for union label. 

The marque syndicale is extensively used in some industries, notably 
the printing trades ; and denotes that the work upon which it is placed 
was performed either by trade unionists or under trade union con- 
ditions. 

[314] 



Marriage Benefits. A unique foiTa of trade union benefit 
paid by the National Federation of Woman Workers, a British 
organization. The provision in the constitution of the Federation 
reads thus: "In the event of the marriage of a member, if she has 
been a full member for two years, and has not received out-of- 
employment or sick benefit during the period of her membership, 
the central council shall refund 50 per cent of the amount of her 
contributions, providing she is leaving her trade and terminating 
her membership." 

Marshalmen. See Steward. 

Marxian Industrial Unionism. This phrase is used in the 
British labor movement in designation of what is more commonly 
known in the United States as revolutionary unionism. The 
Marxian industrial unionist ''starts from the standpoint of economic 
determinism. He would accomplish the overthrow of the present 
capitalistic system by organization of the workers into a strong 
coherent body. His revolution is economic, his instrument the 
dictatorship of the proletariat. His thoughts are upon industry 
only as industry is the instrument of this revolution." 

Marxian Socialism or Marxianism. See Scientific Socialism. 

Mass Strike. See General Strike. 

Mass Unionism. A term sometimes applied to the plan of 
organizing all the workers of a community, without regard to craft, 
industrial, or any other distinctions. Some elements within the 
Industrial Workers of the World favor this form of organization, 
as against the plan of industrial unionism, and at least one of the 
early I. W. W. locals was organized on this basis — the local at Gold- 
field, Nevada, which was the scene of bitter labor troubles during 
1906-7. 

Massachusetts Savings Banks Insurance and Pension 
System. This plan, characterized by one authority as ''the first 
significant step towards social insurance in the United States," 
was originated by Louis D. Brandeis (now associate justice of the 
Supreme Court) and embodied in a state legislative act passed in 
June, 1907. The purposes of the act are to furnish secure life insurance 
and old-age annuities to the wage-workers of Massachusetts at the 
lowest possible cost, as a substitute for the expensive so-called 
''industrial life insurance," through the medium of duly authorized 
savings banks, acting under somewhat elaborate state supervision. 

[315] 



Master. In England, any employer of labor is generally so 
called. (See Little Master.) 

Master's Man. See Company Man. 

Master and Servant Acts. Various British Parliamentary 
enactments defining and regulating the relations between employers 
and employees. Under the early Master and Servant Acts, passed 
during the middle years of the 19th century, an employer who broke 
a contract of service was merely liable to pay damages. The work- 
man's penalty for breach of contract (i.e., for a simple refusal to 
work) was three months' imprisonment, without the option of a 
fine. Even his trial was often a farce ; he could be arrested summarily 
and sentenced by a single justice of the peace, from whose judgment 
there was no appeal. This scandalous situation was only ended, 
after a long struggle, by the passing of a reformed Master and 
Servant Act in 1867. (See Employers and Workmen Act.) 

Material Trade Union. The name sometimes given to a 
structural type of trade union organization which (according to 
G. D. H. Cole) "follows the line not of the precise craft followed by 
the worker concerned, but of the material on which he or she may 
happen to be working. Thus, there are many who advocate that the 
various unions of skilled wood-workers (carpenters, cabinet-makers, 
and joiners, furnishing trades, wood-cutting machinists, packing- 
case makers, etc.) should amalgamate into a single union, not on 
industrial lines, but on the lines of the material on which all these 
crafts in common work; and it is interesting to note that this is 
actually the form of organization adopted by the largest Trade 
Union in Germany — the German Metal-workers' Union. This 
Union, however, goes further, and includes skilled and unskilled 
workers alike. . . . Material Unionism is not necessarily allied with 
Craft Unionism. Indeed, in Germany, the Metal-workers' Union 
is far more nearly akin to an Industrial than to a Craft Union." 
(See German Trade Union Organization.) 

Material Unionism. See Material Trade Union. 

Materialistic Conception of History. See Economic De- 
terminism. 

Maternity Insurance. A form of social insurance which 
partially indemnifies wage-earning women for loss of wages due to 
absence from work immediately before and after child-birth. Such 
indemnification usually takes the form of weekly payments, commonly 

[316] 



known as ** lying-in benefits"; but it often includes medical care as 
well. In twelve European countries maternity insurance is provided 
as part of the compulsory health insurance systems; five countries 
provide State aid for this purpose to voluntary insurance funds; 
and three others make direct grants to mothers upon the birth of 
living children. (See Social Insurance in Russia.) 

Meantime Workers. A phrase sometimes used in designation 
of young women who take up industrial work m^erely to fill the 
interval until marriage. 

Mechanics' Lien. In law, the prior claim of a workman upon 
buildings or land to the amount of his wages for labor performed 
upon such buildings or land or for material furnished, regardless of 
whether he was engaged by the owner or by another person. Laws 
fixing such prior claim exist in all the states of this country. Their 
provisions are lengthy and elaborate, but in general they undertake 
to give all classes of mechanics, or material men, liens either on the 
building and land covered by the lien, or upon the building and a 
certain amount of land surrounding it; and in some states such 
liens even take precedence of the prior mortgage. 

Mechanics' Union of Trade Associations. The first labor 
organization involving more than a single trade to be formed in 
America — or, according to some authorities, in any country. It 
grew out of a strike of the carpenters of Philadelphia in 1827; other 
trades came to the support of the carpenters, and an organization 
was effected. Some fifteen societies were later included. Through 
its efforts what is probably the first wage-earners' paper ever pub- 
lished, "The Mechanics' Free Press," was started in 1828. The 
organization took an active part in politics, but disappeared soon 
after the election of 1831. 

Mediation. In connection with industrial disputes, the inter- 
vention of some "outside" impartial person or body, with a view to 
promoting the settlement of a dispute by mutual agreement between 
the contending parties. There is a great deal of confusion in the 
current use of the terms "mediation" and conciliation. Some 
writers and labor officials make little if any distinction between the 
two, while they are often used by different authorities in directly 
contrary senses. But it should be noted that, as the word itself 
implies, mediation always involves the introduction of an inter- 
mediary or "middle" agency in an industrial dispute; while concili- 
ation does not necessarily involve anything of the sort — although, 

1317] 



as a matter of fact, such an agency is in most cases the determining 
factor. Mediation, in fact, refers simply to that form of conciliation 
in which an outside agency is utilized as a go-between by the two 
contending parties — an agency which endeavors in all possible ways 
to help the disputants to arrive at a mutually acceptable settlement. 
In ARBITRATION, on the other hand, the dispute is taken out of the 
control of the contending parties, and settled by a third party, 
who acts as a judge on the merits of the case. The practice of medi- 
ation is applicable both to disputes regarding general conditions of 
labor and to those regarding interpretation of existing agreements. 
It is obvious, however, that mediation is likely to occur only in 
regard to disputes which have become conspicuous before the general 
public, and which involve the public interests as well as those of the 
disputants. In other words, the intervention of outside parties to 
bring about a settlement usually takes place only in case of open 
rupture between employers and employees, and usually only after 
a prolonged strike or lockout. (See Mediator; and all cross refer- 
ences under Conciliation.) 

Mediator. A pubHc official or an impartial "outsider" who 
intervenes in an industrial dispute, with the object of bringing the 
two parties together in a voluntary settlement of their differences, 
Unlike an arbitrator, the mediator has no power or authority to 
decide the merits of the case on his own account. If such power is 
given him by the disputants or by outside authority, he ceases to 
be a mediator and becomes an arbitrator. The function of the 
mediator is to act as a go-between in the negotiations, *'to pro- 
mote calm discussion, to draw forth frank explanations, or to sug- 
gest possible tenns of compromise." The resulting settlement may 
indeed be largely or wholly of his own framing, but he will seldom 
let it appear so, his purpose being simply that the disputants shall 
come to an agreement between themselves. The terms ''mediator," 
"arbitrator," and "conciliator" are often used indiscriminately, 
with great resulting confusion in the public mind. The distinction 
between "mediator" and "arbitrator" is sufficiently indicated above. 
As to "conciliator," there seems no real need for using the word at 
all. If a mediator has been successful in conciliating the two parties 
to a dispute, he may of course be termed a conciliator; but there is 
no practical value in such a distinction. In common indiscriminate 
usage, what is called a conciliator may be in fact either a mediator 
or an arbitrator. (See Mediation.) 

Medical Benefits. See Benefits. 

1 318] 



Members at Large. Among American national and interna- 
tional unions there are two principal methods or devices of attaching 
isolated journeymen in towns or regions where no local of the 
national organization exists. In some cases, such journeymen become 
direct members of the national union, pay dues directly to the 
central headquarters, and are entitled to all benefits and privileges 
accorded to other members of the union. They are usually known 
as ** members at large," although other designations {e.g., "condi- 
tional members, * ' * * provisional members, ' ' and * ' general members ") 
are sometimes used. In other unions, such isolated journeymen 
become members of the nearest neighboring local to their place of 
residence, and are known as ''jurisdiction members." These two 
methods are adopted to extend "the outposts of unionism, as well 
as to retain those members in good standing of disbanded local 
unions, and to acquire control of workers immediately beyond the 
jurisdiction of a local union who would be of service in counter- 
acting the efforts of employers to secure non-unionists." 

Members in Good Standing. In any labor organization, the 
phrase "members in good standing" denotes only those members 
whose membership dues are paid to some definite time. The num- 
ber of members in good standing at any moment is smaller than the 
actual number of members who contribute their force and their 
money to the organization. In the case of a national organization 
it is necessary to the maintenance of a member's standing, not only 
that he pay his dues to his local union, but that the officers of the local 
union remit promptly to the national office. Local officers are fre- 
quently remiss, and it results that the number of members in good 
standing, as shown by the books of the national union, is even 
smaller than the number of members who have actually made their 
payments. (See Tax Dodging.) 

Membership Committee. See Admittance to the Trade 
Union; Trade Union Government — Local. 

Membership Dues. Each member of a local labor organiza- 
tion is required to make a small monthly or weekly payment in sup- 
port of the organization. The amount of this payment is practically 
always fixed by the local union; although a minimum sum is some- 
times specified in the constitution of the national union, in order to 
insure adequate funds for the local treasuries. Maximum dues also 
are sometimes thus fixed, although rarely. The local dues vary 
widely in amount, partly with the average earnings of the trade, 
but more with the degree of organization of the union and the num- 

[319] 



ber and amount of the benefits it pays. If women are admitted to 
the union, the dues are often made lower for them than for men. In 
other cases, where men of different earning powers are admitted, the 
dues may be graded. Thus, in a union of steam fitters which ad- 
mitted HELPERS also, the dues of the latter would be considerably 
less than for the journeymen. (See Stamp Receipt System; 
Check-Off System; Members in Good Standing.) 

Menial Labor. See Domestic Service. 

Mensheviki. See Bolshevism. 

Metal Trades Councils. Local, district, and state bodies, 
of a delegate character, representative of trade unions in the metal 
industries affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. 
Such councils are chartered directly by the Metal Trades Depart- 
ment of the A. F. of L. The local councils consist of six representa- 
tives from each craft within the jurisdiction of the council, regardless 
of the number of locals in the jurisdiction. Each delegate has a 
single vote. The usual officers and executive board are elected. 
The functions of the councils are to promote the common interests 
of the allied trades which they represent, to further joint action, to 
carry on organization work among unorganized sections of the trades, 
and to prepare and issue a joint union label, known as the "metal 
trades label." Three or more local councils may federate in a district 
or state council, for common effort and joint action in these larger 
areas. (See Trades Council — American.) 

Metal Trades Department of the American Federation of 
Labor. Organized 1908, and consisting of such national and inter- 
national unions of metal trades workers (blacksmiths, boiler- 
makers, stationary engineers and firemen, machinists, moulders, 
plumbers, electrical workers, iron shipbuilders, pattern makers, 
steam and gas fitters, etc.) as are affiliated with and chartered by 
the A. F, of L. The objects of the Department, according to its 
constitution, are "the encouragement and formation of local metal 
trades councils, and the conferring of such power and authority 
upon the several local organizations of this Department as may ad- 
vance the interests and welfare of the m^etal trades industry; to ad- 
just trade disputes along practical lines as they arise, and to establish 
more harmonious relations between employer and employee; to issue 
charters to local metal trades councils." (See Departments of the 
American Federation of Labor.) 

Metal Trades Label. See Metal Trades Councils. 

[320] 



Metayage or Metayer System. A plan of agricultural 
LABOR or cultivation which prevails in central and southern France, 
in Italy, and in the southern United States. Under this method the 
tenant, instead of paying a fixed money rent for the land, agrees to 
pay the landlord a certain proportion of the crop produced, usually 
one half. (See Share Croppers.) 

Mexican Labor Party. See Partido Laborista Mexicano. 

Mexican Regional Confederation of Labor. See Con- 

FEDERACION REGIONAL ObRERA MeXICANA. 

Mezzadri. See Confederazione Italiana dei Lavoratori. 

Middle Class. In ordinary usage, a collective designation 
for those persons (clerks, professional workers, small merchants, 
teachers, technicians, etc.) whose social and economic status is above 
that of the "common" laboring class and below that of the aristo- 
cratic or wealthy class. The term, however, is more and more 
becoming a description of character rather than an indication of 
social rank or economic status. Thus, one writer defines the middle 
class as "that portion of the community to which money is the pri- 
mary condition and the primary instrument of life." As used by 
socialists, the term denotes those persons who derive their incomes 
in part from their own labor and in part from invested capital or the 
labor of others, occupying an economic position midway between the 
bourgeoisie and the proletariat. (See Blackcoats; White Col- 
lars ; Salariat ; Intellectual Proletariat ; Middle Class Unions.) 

Middle Class Unions. The various organizations of middle- 
class salaried workers — clerks, teachers, government employees, 
technicians, etc. — are often so called. The term is also used in desig- 
nation of various organizations (mostly of recent origin) which are 
intended, or at least ostensibly intended, to protect the so-called 
middle class from the "ever-increasing encroachments of labor and 
capital." Some of these organizations openly avow strikebreaking 
as the chief of their activities; others, though more cautious in their 
avowals, are essentially strikebreaking organizations; while still 
others are legitimate associations for the protection and advance- 
ment of a hitherto unorganized section of the general public. (See 
Blackcoats; White Collars; Angestellten.) 

Midlertidig lov om Arbeiderutvalg. See Norwegian Works 
Council Law. 

[321] 



Migratory Labor. Those workers, mainly of the unskilled 
or COMMON LABOR class, who have lost touch with any permanent 
home, but drift about from one town to another, securing or retaining 
employment for comparatively short periods only. They are to be 
found in largest nimibers in the Western states, doing the roughest 
and hardest work in mine and liunber camp, or canying on such 
brief seasonal occupations as wheat-harvesting and fruit-picking. 
They are the pariahs of our modem industrial system — "homeless, 
womanless, jobless, voteless men" who are utilized and exploited 
when they can be, and then often driven out, living always on the 
most brutalizing social level. According to Carleton Parker, who 
has studied this class more intimately than any other authority, 
"the migratory laborers are nothing more nor less than the finished 
products of their environment. They should therefore never be 
studied as isolated revolutionaries, but rather as, on the whole, 
tragic symptoms of a sick social order. Fortunately the psychologists 
have made it unnecessary to explain that there is nothing willful or 
personally reprehensible in the vagrancy of these vagrants. Their 
histories show that, starting with the long hoiirs and dreary winters 
of farms they ran away from, through their character-debasing 
experience with irregular industrial labor, on to the vicious economic 
life of the winter unemployed, their training predetermined but one 
outcome." Migratory workers are known by various nicknames — 
"hoboes," "floaters," "rovers," "roustabouts," "yeggs," "boom- 
ers," "ten-day workers," etc. (See Casual Labor; Under- 
employment; Stiff; Timber Wolf; Fruit Tramp; Industrial 
Workers of the World.) 

Mine Boss. See Mine Manager. 

Mine Committee. See Pit Committee. 

Mine Foreman. See Mine Manager. 

Mine Inspection. In nearly all countries mining furnishes 
a higher fatal accident rate than any of the other main groups of 
industry. Metal-mining has a higher death-rate than coal-mining, 
and employment in anthracite coal mines is more dangerous than in 
bituminous mines, since the former are deeper and more subject to 
accumulations of noxious and explosive gases. Coal-mining appears 
to be more dangerous in America than in any other country. Recog- 
nition of the insanitary and dangerous conditions which are likely to 
prevail in mines has led nearly all states in which coal mines are found 
to make regulations regarding them and to provide for their inspec- 

[322] 



tion. Such laws usually aim not only to protect the employees 
against accident and unhealthy conditions, but, unlike the factory 
laws, they also protect the property of the mine owners. They pro- 
vide for the appointment and removal of inspectors, usually upon 
the basis of a civil service examination conducted by a board of 
examiners who are acquainted with the mining industry, including 
representatives of the employers and the employees, with a mining 
engineer as a third member. These inspectors are required regularly 
to visit the mines and call upon the operators for the necessary 
facilities for inspection, and to call upon the courts to issue orders 
commanding recalcitrant owners or operators to grant admission 
to their mines. (See Mine Manager.) 

Mine Manager. The laws of nearly all American bituminous 
coal-mining states require the owner or operator of every mine to 
appoint some competent person for the general direction of the 
underground work, or both the underground and the outside work. 
This person (variously known as the "mine manager," *'mine fore- 
man," or *'mine boss ") is often required to pass a special state examin- 
ation in test of his competency. He must make frequent (sometimes 
daily) inspections of all apparatus and conditions in the mine, with 
special reference to the safety of the miners, see that necessary 
changes are made, and (usually) send periodic reports to the state 
officials. In mines which generate explosive gases, a separate official 
called the *'fire boss" is sometimes required, who must be a technical 
expert in his field and who has special powers in connection with the 
dangers from explosions. (See Mine Inspection.) 

Mine -Run System. See Screening System. 

Mine Safety. See Mine Inspection. 

Miners' Agent. Among British coal-miners, a trade union 
official who has charge of a district organization representative 
of all the branch units or ''lodges" of the national union within a 
given district. 

''Miners' Next Step." The title of a famous pamphlet issued 
in 19 1 2 by the syndicalist section of South Wales miners. It pro- 
posed the general strike as a means of securing control over the 
whole coal-field of South Wales by the workers themselves, acting 
through a delegate body meeting monthly. An organization known 
as the Iftdustrial Democracy League was formed soon after the ap- 
pearance of ''The Miners' Next Step," for the purpose of putting the 
pamphlet's principles into practice. 

[323] 



Minimum Comfort Level. The lowest amount of yearly 
income upon which a family — usually reckoned as consisting of a 
man and wife and three small children — can live at a minimum of 
health and comfort. Unlike the minimum subsistence level, this 
calculation includes a small allowance for education, recreation, 
reading matter, insurance, and similar items. (See Family Budget; 
Living Wage; Minimum Wage; American Standard of Living.) 

Minimum Scale. See Scale. 

Minimum Subsistence Level. The lowest amount of income 
upon which a "standard" family (five persons) may sustain the vital 
physical functions. Unlike the minimum comfort level, it includes 
no allowance for those small advantages or comforts which are 
essential to any decent standard of living. Sometimes called the 
"existence minimum" — or, in the ironic phrase of trade unionists, 
the "fodder basis." (See Living Wage; Family Budget; Minimum 
Wage; Iron Law of Wages.) 

Minimum Wage. As most commonly used, this term denotes 
a specified standard or standards, fixed by public legislation, below 
which wages may not legally be depressed. Such standard or stand- 
ards may be applicable to all workers in all industries within the 
legislative jurisdiction involved, or to all workers in certain selected 
industries, or only to women and children in all or particular indus- 
tries. The minimum wage is generally calculated on what is called 
the MINIMUM subsistence level, but it may be and often is an arbi- 
trary amount unrelated to current living costs or standards. In 
England, where no fixed wage standard is set by the law itself, the 
general practice is "to level the wage for the whole trade in each 
district up to the standard of the best employer in that district." 
In the badly sweated trades this means a considerable increase for 
most of the workers, but it does not necessarily give them a living 
wage. For a long time the minimum wage principle was strongly 
opposed by economists, who believed that such an arbitrary inter- 
ference with economic "laws" could result only in disaster; by em- 
ployers, who frequently asserted that the principle spelt ultimate 
"industrial ruin"; and by certain trade union officials, who feared 
that it would hinder the trade union movement by enabling the work- 
ers to secure wage gains without the aid of organization. But what- 
ever may be said against the minimum wage idea, it has as yet failed 
to justify any of these particular fears. On the asset side, as George 
O'Brien points out, "the minimum wage possesses at least one car- 

[324] 



dinal advantage, namely, that it forces the State to face the problem 
of the maintenance of those who are unable through physical or 
mental infirmity to work sufficiently to earn the minimum. At pres- 
ent there is a danger that the labor of such incapables may be re- 
sorted to, in order to lower the standard rate of wages; but under a 
universal insistence on the minim.imi wage they would be bound 
to be maintained by public benevolence or provided with lighter 
and more suitable employment. The danger to which the accept- 
ance of the principle of the minimum wage gives rise is that wages 
may come to be fixed without sufficient regard to the productive 
capacity of the workman, or the nature of his output." The term 
** minimum wage" is occasionally applied to the minimum rate of 
wages fixed, not by legislative action, but by collective bargain- 
ing or the WORKING rules of a trade union. (See Minimum Wage 
Laws; Standard Rate; Cost of Living; Family Budget; Com- 
mon Rule; Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbi- 
tration.) 

Minimum Wage Commissions. See Minimum Wage Laws. 

Minimum Wage Laws. Beginning with the action of Massa- 
chusetts in 191 2, thirteen states in this country, besides the District 
of Coltimbia and the island possession of Porto Rico, have enacted 
minimum wage laws. A few of these statutes are of the "flat rate", 
sort, in which a minimum rate of wages is specified in the law. Most 
of them, however, are of the class known as "wage board" laws, 
delegating to a board or commission the duty of investigating par- 
ticular industries and determining a suitable rate, either independ- 
ently or after investigation and recommendation by advisory bodies 
known as wage boards or conferences. In all but one state, penalties 
are provided for non-compliance. The law is in all cases restricted 
to females, as far as adult labor is concerned, though in a majority 
of the states minors are also included. In a few states certain specified 
occupations are exempted from the workings of the act. In nearly 
every case the law is based on the necessary cost of living adequate 
to maintain health and welfare, or "to supply the necessary comforts 
of a reasonable life." In some states wages of minors need not be 
adequate for their maintenance, but must be "suitable" or "not 
unreasonably low." Rates lower than the minimtmi for experienced 
workers may be fixed for learners and for women of substandard 
capacity, either physically or mentally. Minimum wage laws, of 
varied scope, have been enacted by Great Britain, Australia, Norway, 
22 [325] 



France, and four Canadian provinces. (See Trade Boards; Wage 
Boards; Coal Mine Act; Corn Production Act.) 

Mining Department of the American Federation of Labor. 
Organized 19 12, and composed of such international or national 
unions in mining, oil, and kindred industries as are affiliated with the 
A. F. of L. — chiefly the United Mine Workers of America. The object 
of the Department is "the greater unity" of the workers whom^ 
it represents, and "the furtherance of the principle that 'an injury 
to one is the concern of all.'" According to its constitution, "the 
President may, where he considers it advisable, establish local 
councils of the Mining Department." (See Departments of the 
American Federation of Labor.) 

Mining Institutes. Local and district organizations, for 
educational and social purposes, of workers in the coal-miining 
regions of Pennsylvania. At first fostered by the state Y. M. C. A., 
they are now for the most part independent and self-sustaining. 
Meetings are usually held monthly. 

Ministero per il Lavoro e la Previdenza Sociale (Ministry 
of Labor and Social Thrift). By a decree of June 3, 1920, this 
departm.ent of the Italian government has been established, to take 
over certain functions hitherto performed by the Ministry of Indus- 
try, Commerce, and Labor (hereafter to be known as the Ministry 
of Industry and Commerce). The services thus taken over include 
those whose activities are concerned with social insurance, co- 
operation, the inspection of factories, workshops, and mines, 
AGRICULTURAL LABOR and agricultural cooperative societies, friendly 
societies and other thrift bodies. All services relating to assistance 
to workers have also been taken over, and the ministry will exercise 
supervision over the two national funds for soldiers and sailors, 
established in 191 7 and 19 19 respectively, as well as over all other 
institutions with analogous objects. The office of labor statistics, 
the national employment department, and the central statistical 
office have been transferred to the new ministry. In the future, 
legislation relating to emigration and treaties affecting labor and 
emigration will be prepared jointly by the Minister of Labor and 
the Minister of Foreign Affairs. 

Mixed Local. The type of local which predominates in the 
Industrial Workers of the World. It was originally intended as 
a recruiting branch only, "to include workers in various industries, 
but only so to include them temporarily; it being understood that 

[326] 



so soon as a sufficient number of the workers in any particular indus- 
try came into the locaHty to warrant their organization into a union 
all members of the mixed local who belonged to that industry 
should immediately withdraw from the 'mixed' and join the 'pure' 
INDUSTRIAL UNION. It was, of course, assumed that no one should 
join a mixed local or remain in a mixed local when a union of his 
industry existed in that locality." (See Federal Labor Union.) 

Mixed Shop. One in which both union and non-union workers 
are employed, either under a definite open shop agreement or in the 
absence of such an agreement. 

Mixed Union. No very fixed or definite meaning attaches to 
this term. In the United States, it generally denotes a trade union 
organized on neither craft nor industrial lines, but which admits 
workers in any craft or industry — as for example, a federal labor 
UNION. In England, trade unions made up of both men and women 
workers are usually called "mixed unions," — and in America also 
the term is sometimes used in that sense. In France, the syndicats 
MiXTES are more in the nature of benefit societies than of trade 
unions. (See Mixed Local.) 

Mobility of Labor. While this term is sometimes used with 
reference to the movement of labor from one industry or locality to 
another, in the Bureau of Labor Statistics terminology it refers 
specifically to the movement of workers into and out of industrial 
establishments — the movement of which labor turnover or replace- 
ment is one phase. Those workers who are hired are referred to as 
"accessions." Those leaving service, under whatever circimistances, 
are referred to as "separations." Whichever one of these two items — 
accessions or separations — is the smaller may conveniently be taken 
as measuring the number of replacements. The total nimiber of 
labor changes — that is to say, the sum of all the accessions and 
separations — is the "labor flux." The amount by which the acces- 
sions in an expanding business are in excess of the separations is the 
amount of "labor increase." The amount by which the separations 
in a plant exceed the accessions is the amount of "labor decrease." 

Moderates. See Right, Right Wing. 

Molly Maguires. A name given to certain leaders of the 
Ancient Order of Hibernians, who were held responsible for mur- 
ders and other crimes in the anthracite coal regions of Pennsylvania, 
during a protracted strike in 1874-5. Ten of these leaders were 
executed, and fourteen were sent to prison. 

[327] 



Money Steward. See Steward. 

Monopoly Policy of Trade Unionism. Two sorts of trade 
union monopoly should be carefully distinguished. The first con- 
sists in so complete an inclusion of all the workers at a particular 
trade that the union is able to take, in relation to employers, the 
position of the sole seller of that kind of labor which its members 
offer. The second sort consists in the exclusion of candidates for 
membership in the union, or the placing of difficulties in the way of 
joining it, coupled with control of employment at the trade. In the 
first case a monopoly exists only so far as the relation of the union 
to the employers is concerned. In the second case, a monopoly is 
maintained by the actual members against their fellow-workmen. 
Complaints are sometimes made that certain imions are close cor- 
porations, and that men who desire admission to them are without 
good cause rejected. This complaint is often justified — particularly 
in the building trades. In other cases the money cost of joining is 
made high. "The same spirit which leads to the exclusion of men 
from the union, and thereby from employment, appears in the re- 
striction of number of apprentices. . . Something of the same spirit, 
applied to foreigners, appears both in the advocacy of measiu-es to 
restrict immigration by law, and in the placing of especially high 
INITIATION FEES on foreigners. The monopoly against fellow- 
workmen is in some degree inconsistent with the monopoly against 
employers. That against employers is founded on universal inclu- 
sion; that against fellow- workmen on exclusion. The attempt to 
establish a monopoly of the second sort makes it impossible per- 
manently to maintain one of the first. If workers are not permitted 
to join the union they will still be able in most occupations to make 
themselves felt as competitors, and their competition will be severer 
and more injiuious than it would be if they were admitted to the 
union." (See Closed Union; Closed Shop; Exclusive Agree- 
ment; Exclusion Policy of Trade Unionism; Restriction op 
Numbers.) 

Monthly Working Button. See Working Button. 

Mooney Case. During a "preparedness parade" in San Fran- 
cisco on July 22, 1 916, ten persons were killed by a bomb thrown into 
the crowd. A prominent labor organizer, Thomas J. Mooney, 
with his wife and several associates, was held on the charge of having 
committed the crime. After a trial in which Mooney was convicted 
and sentenced to death, one of the chief witnesses for the prosecution 

[328] 



fell under grave suspicion. As a result of national indignation among 
the laboring classes, the President's Mediation Commission was 
asked to investigate the case. This body reported that Mooney 
had been convicted on indisputably perjured evidence. Both the 
presiding judge and the prosecuting attorney at Mooney 's trial have 
since expressed their doubt of his guilt, while a member of the San 
Francisco police force has confessed that witnesses were coached for 
weeks before the trial in building up a case against the defendants. 
Under subsequent pressure from President Wilson, Mooney's sen- 
tence was commuted to life imprisonment, but a new trial has been 
persistently denied. The case has achieved international fame in 
labor circles. 

Morale in Industry. Defined as the "involuntary organiza- 
tion of mind," and partially expressed in such commoner terms as 
"loyalty," "good will," esprit de corps, "efficiency," etc., morale 
is a most important factor in any large industrial undertaking. 
Although it may be difficult to trace its concrete expression, it exerts 
a profound influence on the work of every human unit in the organi- 
zation. (See Personnel Administration; Industrial Relations 
Department.) 

Mortuary Benefit. See Death Benefit. 

Moscow Conditions. See Lenin's Twenty-One Conditions. 

Moscow Internationale. See Internationale; Communist 
Internationale. 

Moscow Internationale Communist Manifesto. A docu- 
ment setting forth the principles of the Communist Internationale, 
formed at Moscow in March, 1919. The manifesto condemns the 
imperialism which caused the World War and which, as it asserts, 
is perpetuated by the League of Nations, and declares that only a vic- 
torious PROLETARIAT throughout the world will guarantee democracy 
and self-determination to Europe and freedom from exploitation to 
the oppressed colonies of Asia and Africa. It maintains that a dic- 
tatorship OF THE PROLETARIAT will be ncccssary wherever the 
BOURGEOISIE rcsists the socialization of industry. The confer- 
ence declared that the second Internationale had been destroyed by 
the war, and that the third Internationale is the genuine successor 
of the first Internationale founded by Marx and Engels in 1864. 
(See Communist Manifesto.) 

Moscow Trade Union Internationale. See International 
Council of Trade and Industrial Unions. 

[329] 



Mothers' Pensions. A form of social insurance, closely 
allied to widows' and orphans' insurance, which has made par- 
ticular headway in the United States. Most of the state legislative 
acts in this country, notwithstanding their general title of ''mothers' 
pensions acts," really provide pensions for dependent children, to 
be paid to widows or wives of deceased, deserting, disabled, or im.- 
prisoned husbands. 

Motion Study. A method or process which, along with its 
companion process time study, is inherent in any scheme of scien- 
tific MANAGEMENT. The objcct of this method, according to G. D. 
H. Cole, **is so to study the motions of a workman engaged upon a 
particular job as to know what m.otions are of a wasteful character, 
and can be eliminated with advantage. Where this method is adopted, 
once again the job is studied by experts who stand over the workman 
while he is doing it. The motions employed are carefully observed, 
and thereafter suggestions are made with regard to the motions that 
ought to be used in doing the job, the tools with which the job can 
be done with least effort, the adjustments proper for these tools, 
etc. When the job is issued with the price upon it, instructions 
covering these points are issued with it, and the price placed upon 
it is such that it is only by following instructions and eliminating 
waste motions that an adequate percentage over the day-work 
rate can be earned." More briefly put, the object of motion study 
is 'Ho determine the most effective motion to accomplish a desired 
result; and one of the elements in the determination of its effective- 
ness is the time it takes to execute it. Time study and motion study, 
therefore, go hand in hand, but it is not impossible to make an effec- 
tive and profitable motion study without the use of any timing 
device." (See Time and Motion Study.) 

Move. In the flint glass trade, where workers are commonly 
paid on a piece work basis, the wage payment for each kind of 
article manufactured is based upon a so-called ''move," consisting 
of a certain number of pieces which a group of workers (called in 
the glass trade a "shop") is supposed to be able to make in a shift 
or "turn" of a specified time. The "move" was formerly the maxi- 
mimi number of articles which the group or "shop" were permitted 
to make in the allotted time, but the limitation has now been removed. 

Mucker. In mining operations, this nickname is commonly 
applied to a laborer who performs the lowest grades of unskilled work 
in and about the mine — such work, for example, as shovelling ore, 
loading and unloading mine cars, etc. 

[330] 



Multiple -Branch Union. In the British labor movement, a 
trade union embracing all or most of the workers throughout the 
country engaged in a single craft or industry, the members being 
organized locally in branches of the parent society. Thus, the 
Amalgamated Society of Engineers consists of upwards of looo 
branches, of which more than 300 are in the Colonies. The 700 
home branches are grouped in a series of district committees of 
widely different importance. Thus the London District Committee 
includes seventy-two branches, Glasgow sixty branches, Manchester 
forty-nine, Birmingham thirty-two, and others, such as Norwich, 
only two. Many districts, moreover, possess only a single branch, 
and, in such cases, this branch has the sam.e function and powers as 
the district committees in the larger centres. (See British Trade 
Union Organization.) 

Multiplied Strike. See Sympathetic Strike. 

Municipal Socialism. A term rather loosely applied to any 
scheme for town or city ownership or control of such public utilities 
as water-supply, lighting and heating plants, street-car service, 
markets, hospitals, amusem.ent enterprises, and other necessities or 
conveniences of general use. Also called "municipal trading." (See 
Socialization.) 

Municipal Trading. See Municipal Socialism. 

Mutual Aid. The instinct for solidarity and self-preservation 
which prompts man to give and receive help from his fellow-men. 
In his classic book on this subject, Kropotkin claims that mutual 
aid has been as important a factor in the preservation of the species 
as the struggle for existence. He records a large num.ber of sug- 
gestive instances of cooperation among both higher and lower ani- 
m.als, and draws interesting analogies between human society and 
such highly developed societies as those of ants and bees. Anarchism 
relies upon the instinct for mutual aid to render the unrestrained 
freedom of the individual compatible with an orderly and productive 
social existence. (See Christian Socialism; Mutualism.) 

Mutual Aid Societies. A generic term for various volun- 
tary associations of industrial workers in nearly all countries, formed 
to assist the needy ones among themselves and to provide certain 
forms of insurance at low cost, sick benefits being their most con- 
spicuous and commonest feature. Sometin':.ec they combine educa- 
tional activities with financial aid. Such organizations are generally 
known as "benevolent societies" or "benevolent associations" in 

[3311 



the United States, as friendly societies in Great Britain, societes 
de secours mutuels in France and Belgium, Krankenkassen in the 
Germanic countries, societa di mtituo soccorso in Italy, Sygekassen 
in Denmark, etc. Their revenues are derived from either member- 
ship dues or special assessments on members; in some European 
countries these revenues are supplemented by a State subsidy. 
(See Fraternal Orders; Industrial Benefit Societies.) 

Mutual Insurance. As a main method or function of trade 
unionism, this is defined by Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Webb as "the 
provision of a fund by common subscription to insure against casual- 
ties; to provide maintenance, that is to say, in cases in which a mem- 
ber is deprived of his livelihood by causes over which neither he nor 
the union has any control." Other writers, however, extend the 
definition to include also insurance against risks deliberately incurred 
in the struggle of the workers to protect or improve their standard 
of life, thus covering union payments to members on strike; and 
it is in this extended meaning that the term is perhaps most com- 
monly imderstood. The provision of insurance against various con- 
tingencies has always been an important feature of trade imion 
policy. It is strictly subordinate, however, to the primary purpose 
of affecting the terms and conditions of employment. In some cases, 
as that of insurance against unemployment, it has a direct bearing 
upon the primary purpose of imionism. The man who has no resource 
but his labor must of necessity sell his labor to the first bidder at 
whatever price is offered, in order to keep himself and those dependent 
upon him from starvation. If the imion furnishes subsistence to 
those who are for the time being unable to obtain employment on 
such terms as it considers just, it enables them, to stand out for the 
union wages. Other forms of insurance, like those against death 
and sickness, do not have so direct and evident a bearing upon trade 
conditions. Though the provision of insurance is only a secondary 
purpose of a union, it is yet one of no slight importance in attracting 
new members, and of yet greater importance in holding old ones. 
One who has for years contributed to the union treasvuy, and has 
acquired and maintained a right to certain benefits in case of sick- 
ness or death, will be much slower to drop out for any slight cause 
than if the insurance system did not exist. The bond is particularly 
strong if the amount of benefit payable to each member increases 
with the length of his continuous m.em.bership. This increase of 
loyalty and of permanence is, perhaps, the chief gain which the union, 
as an organization, derives from the insurance system. The possi- 

[332] 



bility of ejecting a member from the union, and so ending his claim 
for benefit, constitutes another advantage to the organization, in 
that it furnishes an additional means of discipline. There are con- 
siderable differences of system between British and American unions 
in respect to their benefit payments, possibly due in part to the more 
recent development of trade unionism here, but partly due to char- 
acteristic differences of organization. In Great Britain, when the 
local unions began to coalesce into broader organizations, the local 
treasuries were regularly treated as common property, and all the 
funds were subjected to a common authority. In the United States 
the treasury of each national union is, as a rule, distinct from the 
local treasuries, and is supported by a specific tax upon the local 
unions. The local unions, in many cases, maintain insurance systems 
of their own, supplemental to any insurance which the national 
organizations may furnish. Thus, a large proportion of the insurance 
benefits paid by American unions do not pass through the treasuries 
of the national organizations. They are paid by the local unions 
under local regulations. Mutual insurance as a trade union function 
has made the greatest headway in Great Britain and Germany, and 
it has been an important factor in the tremendous growth of trade 
unionism in those countries. It is weakest, probably, in France. 
(See Social Insurance; MuTUALiTfi.) 

Mutual Interest Department. See Industrial Relations 
Department. 

Mutualism. Some writers have preferred this term as a 
more desirable designation than socialism for the underlying basis 
of the future cooperative commonwealth. One such writer, 
Professor Frank Parsons, speaks of it as follows: "The term mutual- 
ism is used to denote a condition of society in which the governing 
principle is mutual help. When two persons work together in part- 
nership or live together in harmonious family life we have mutualism 
in miniature. When the principle of partnership or union of owner- 
ship, effort and control for the common benefit, shall be extended 
to the whole social life of city, State, and nation, we shall have a 
mutualism complete upon the plane of justice. And when love and 
brotherhood become the animating principle of the partnership, 
and each member of society not merely cooperates with the rest, 
but devotes himself to the welfare of the rest, we shall have a mutual- 
ism of the loftiest type. The earlier outward steps toward mutualism 
are the public ownership of monopolies and the growth of cooperative 
enterprises, which processes, meeting each other halfway, will bring 

[333] 



about a common ownership of the means of production and distri- 
bution, industrial self-government or democracy, economic equality, 
and a cooperative character." 

Mutualite. "Friendly" or mutual insurance activities on 
the part of organized labor are so called in France. Such activities 
are decidedly limited, owing partly to the reluctance of French work- 
ers to pay high union contributions, and partly to the fact that the 
SYNDIC AT (trade union) generally regards itself as a fighting organiza- 
tion and is prepared to fight without funds. Sickness and out-of- 
work PAY are exceptional, and even strike pay is seldom given 
regularly. This latter deficiency is often supplied by other means, 
however; voluntary contributions are sent to the strikers from workers 
in other trades and districts, food is often supplied by the local 
BOURSE DU TRAVAIL, and the children of strikers are boarded out 
free in other neighborhoods. Mutual aid activities are more com- 
monly found in the reformist than in the revolutionary syndicats. 
(See Sou du Soldat; Caisse de Secours Mutuel; Union DSpart- 
mentale; Mutuellisme Syndical.) 

Mutuality. In certain British skilled trades where piece 
work prices are not standardized in a written or printed price list, 
this is the method whereby the fixing of the piece price for an in- 
dividual job is accomplished by mutual agreement between the em- 
ployer, acting through his representative, and the workman or work- 
men who perform the job. "Where this occurs, individual mutuality 
has often a measure of collective backing; for the men in the shop 
naturally act together in the adjustment of piece prices, either through 
an organized committee or by unorganized cooperation. Thus 
piece-work prices become to some extent fixed by workshop custom; 
but even so, there is usually no approach to the fixity and almost 
automatic operation of the standard price list." 

Mutuellisme Syndical. In France, the theory of trade 
unionism as primarily or largely devoted to benevolent or mutual 
insurance activities — a theory which is for the most part rejected. 
(See Mutuality.) 



N 



N. P. L. See Non-Partisan League. •, 

National Adjustment Board. A body formed by authority 
of the United States Railroad Administration to adjudicate disputes 
between railway employees and railway managements arising in 
connection with the so-called national agreements in the rail- 
way INDUSTRY, adopted during 191 9- 1920. 

National Adjustment Commission. A war-time agency for 
the settlement of industrial disputes and the determination of wages 
and working conditions in connection with the loading and unloading 
of American shipping. As reconstituted on a peace-time basis in 
September, 1919, the Commission was made up of five active members 
— a neutral chairman, named by the United States Shipping Board; 
two members representing private ship-owning interests; and two 
members representing the International Longshoremen's Association. 
Advisory representation was accorded the Departments of War, Navy, 
Commerce, and Labor. The United States Shipping Board with- 
drew from the Commission in October, 1920, thus practically scuttling 
the entire arrangement. 

National Agreement. A trade agreement which is appli- 
cable to a specific industry throughout the entire country is com- 
monly so called — in contradistinction to any form of local or dis- 
trict agreement. (See National Agreements in the Railway 
Industry.) 

National Agreements in the Railway Industry. A series of 
trade agreements made late in 1919 and early in 1920 between 
the United States Railroad Administration and representatives of 
the organized railway employees. They are not wage scales, but 
mainly working rules covering classification, overtime, and 
similar matters. When the railroads were handed back to private 
ownership, the ''national agreements" remained in force, and it 
has been customary to decide disputes between employers and em- 

[335] 



ployees according to them, though the war emergency is a thing of 
the past. In response to pressure from the railway executives, the 
Railroad Labor Board announced in April, 192 1, that the national 
agreements would be abrogated on July i following. By that date, 
however, the roads and their employees must have negotiated new 
contracts, which must conform to sixteen basic general principles 
specified by the Board. 

National Autonomy. See Autonomy. 

National Board for Jurisdictional Awards in the Building 
Industry. At its annual convention in 1919 the Building Trades 
Department of the American Federation of Labor adopted a 
plan to settle disputes over work that is claimed by more than one 
building trade. This is effected through a body known as the Na- 
tional Board for Jiuisdictional Awards in the Building Industry, 
"to hear claims for jurisdiction over w^ork performed by building 
trades, and to determine by which trade the work in contention 
shall be performed and to make an award in conformity with the 
facts submitted by the contendents." No sympathetic strike 
because of a jurisdictional claim is permitted. The board consists 
of eight members, three selected by the Building Trades Department 
of the A. F. of L., and one each by the American Institute of Archi- 
tects, the Engineering Council, the Associated General Contractors of 
America, the National Association of Builders' Exchanges, and the 
National Building Trades Employers* Association. The head- 
quarters of the board are in Washington, D. C. 

National Catholic Union of Canada. See Canadian Labor 
Organizations. 

National Child Labor Committee. See Labor Legislation. 

National Civic Federation. A private association of prom- 
inent American business men, financiers, and professional persons, 
organized in 1901 for "the promotion of industrial peace by develop- 
ing direct relations between employers, the workers, and the general 
public," these three classes being represented on the executive 
committee of the organization. It opposes all radical labor tenden- 
cies, and thus receives the support of only the most conservative 
elements in the labor movement. It has worked in close cooperation 
with the American Federation of Labor, and has been a consid- 
erable factor in the success of that organization. The National 
Ci^dc Federation maintains a "Woman's Department," the purpose 



of which is "to secure needed improvements in the working and 
living conditions of women wage earners in the various industries 
and governmental institutions, to do practical work in each emer- 
gency as it arises, and to cooperate in the general work of the Feder- 
ation." 

National Clearing House for Labor. Owing to lack^of 
funds, the United States Employment Service has recently been 
obliged to transfer or abandon practically all of its independent 
field activities, and to concentrate upon the task of coordinating 
the efforts of state and municipal authorities in employment work. 
The Federal government now conducts no field work, and operates no 
employment bureaus. All placement work, all intrastate clear- 
ance, all the work of collecting information relating to employment 
and industrial conditions is carried on by the states, or by munici- 
palities responsible to and acting in behalf of the states in which 
they are situated. The states report to the Federal office on the em- 
ployment activities of its several offices, on the industrial situation 
from week to week, on the labor surplus or deficit from day to day, 
and on their shipments of labor to other states. The Federal office 
receives and analyzes the stream of information which is thus poured 
in and directs it into channels of usefulness for the benefit of the states 
from which it was derived and of the nation as a whole. (For a more 
detailed account of the general plan by which the Employment 
Service will function as a "national clearing house for labor" see 
Zone Clearance System and Industrial Employment Survey.) 

National Consumers' League. See Consumers' Leagues. 

National Convention. In many American national and 
international unions, the annual or biennial convention of delegates 
from the various local unions is perhaps the most important feature 
in the national administrative machinery. It is often the highest 
authority of the national union, exercising executive and judicial 
as well as legislative functions. In its legislative capacity it may 
have equal authority to pass every kind of rule. "At one moment, 
therefore, the convention may be remodeling the entire machinery 
of government, or transferring important functions from the local 
unions to the international union; at another, it may be passing an 
unimportant rule to the effect that the union label shall be printed 
on red instead of blue paper." Acting as a judicial tribunal, the 
convention considers grievances brought by national officers, local 
imions, or members, and these grievances may involve violations of 

[337] 



the rules of local unions as well as those of the national union. As 
an executive body, it fixes the amount of dues and assessments; it 
controls disbursements; it orders strikes against employers. The 
convention has the final power in making agreements. Even when 
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING is conducted by the local unions, the na- 
tional union frequently fixes rules of apprenticeship, hours of labor, 
and other conditions of employment which the subordinate locals 
must demand from employers. The convention performs many 
other functions. It elects officers, and audits their accounts. Through 
its committees it performs at times a wide variety of detailed ad- 
ministrative duties which in a political government are usually 
delegated to the executive officers. Representation in the convention 
is sometimes on an equal basis, with one delegate for each local 
regardless of its size, sometimes on a proportional basis. In some 
national unions, the expense of sending delegates to the convention 
is borne by the national body; in others the local or district bodies 
bear the expense; while in still others the expense is divided between 
the national organization and the local or district bodies. (See 
Trade Union Government — National; Block Vote; Fraternal 
Delegates; Initiative and Referendum.) 

National Deputy. See Deputy System. 

National Economy. In an historical sense the third, and what 
is commonly considered the present, stage of economic organization. 
The social basis of industry is now nationality — instead of blood- 
relationship as under household economy, or contiguity as under 
TOWN ECONOMY. Community in production and community in con- 
simiption become distinct and separate. Commodities are no longer 
mainly consiunption goods as in household economy, or mainly 
articles of exchange as in town economy, but commercial wares. 
The consumer no longer stands in any direct relation to the laborer, 
but purchases his goods from the entrepreneur or merchant, by 
whom the laborer is paid. Money becomes a medium of exchange 
and of profit-making as well. Capital becomes predominant; credit 
spreads to every sphere of industrial life; the factory system, 
LARGE-SCALE PRODUCTION, and minutc division of labor become 
universal. While national economy has already been succeeded, 
in considerable part, by international or world economy, the latter 
is as yet not sufficiently organized to be considered an established 
successor to national economy. (See Wage System; Great In- 
dustry.) 

National Executive. See Central Executive. 

[338] 



National Federation of General Workers. A British or- 
ganization, formed in May, 191 7, which includes eleven important 
national unions of general workers, known as general labor 
UNIONS, with an aggregate membership of over 800,000. It is a 
development of the earlier General Laborers' National Council 
(formed in 1908), a consultative body having for its principal function 
the prevention of overlapping and conflict among the different 
unions of general workers. The Federation took a significant step 
towards unification in November, 19 19, in appointing ten District 
Committees, consisting of two representatives of each of the affil- 
iated societies, charged to consult with regard to any local trade 
dispute involving more than one society. 

National Federation of German Trade Unions. See Nat- 
ionalverband Deutscher Gewerkschaften. 

National Federation of Women Workers. The largest 
separate organization for women workers in Great Britain. This 
body works in close alliance with the Women's Trade Union League, 
a federal propagandist body to which many of the mixed unions 
are affiliated. The policy of both the League and the Federation 
is to get women into mixed unions wherever such unions exist, and 
the Federation acts rather as a clearing-house, and as an organiza- 
tion for women workers for whom no special provision exists, than 
as a general association for all women workers. (See Marriage 
Benefits.) 

National Guilds Movement. See Guild Socialism. 

National Guildsmen. Advocates of guild socialism thus 
designate themselves. 

National Industrial Councils. As formulated in the Whit- 
ley PLAN, a national industrial council is a voluntary body repre- 
sentative of the national trade unions and employers' associations 
for an entire industry in England. It is closely linked with the two 
classes of sub-bodies, the district councils and the works commit- 
tees, in the same industry, and deals only with larger questions 
(such as wages and hours) affecting the industry as a whole. The 
British government recognizes the Councils "as the official standing 
consultative committees to the government affecting the industries 
which they represent, and the normal channel through which the 
opinion and experience of an industry will be sought on all questions 
in which the industry is concerned." National councils have been 

[339] 



established In some twenty leading English industries. In a more 
general sense, the term "national industrial council" is often used 
in designation of any joint body representative of employers and 
workers in a single industry throughout the country — as for example, 
the Printing Trades International Joint Conference Council. 

National Insurance Act. A British Parliamentary enactment 
of 191 1, described in its title as "an Act to provide for insurance 
against loss of health and for the prevention and cure of sickness." 
The Act was amended, mainly in the direction of simplification, in 

19 1 8. With certain exceptions, all employed persons in the United 
Kingdom between the ages of sixteen and seventy, -unless employed 
otherwise than by manual labor at a rate of remuneration exceeding 
£250 a year, are required to be insured. Both the employed person 
and his employer must make small weekly payments in support 
of the scheme, and these payments are supplemented by a State 
subsidy. The benefits provided under the Act are medical, sani- 
toriiun (for tubercular persons), sickness, maternity, and disablement 
benefits. The national health insurance system which the Act em- 
bodies may be said to be built on the work of the great British 
friendly societies; by the side of these large organizations, other 
societies such as trade unions, sick clubs, establishment funds, 
and similar voluntary associations had for many years provided 
insurance or relief from distress due to sickness, injury, unemploy- 
ment, death, etc. When the State insurance system was planned, 
it was decided to use these voluntary organizations as carriers of 
the system as far as the pecuniary benefits were concerned. These 
societies, if they meet with the requirements of the law, are desig- 
nated as "approved societies"; the approval is given by the authori- 
ties on submission of proof showing that they are not conducted for 
profit, that they are controlled by the members, and that they are 
in a position to carry out the requirements of the law. (See Unem- 
ployment Insurance Act, 1920; Invalidity Insurance.) 

National Labor Party. Organized at Chicago in November, 

19 1 9, by labor, farmer, and cooperative groups throughout the 
United States. The labor element consisted largely of those members 
of the American Federation of Labor who opposed the Federa- 
tion's policy of non-political activities. The party declared for the 
NATIONALIZATION of aU unused land, public utilities, and basic in- 
dustries; demanded free speech press, and assembly; and included 
various other planks in its platform similar to those of the Socialist 
Party. In July, 1920, the Party merged into the Farmer-Labor 

[ 340 ] 



Party fonned at that time, and of which it constitutes the largest 
element. Although generally known as the National Labor Party, 
its official title was the Labor Party of the United States. 

National Labor Union. An American organization which 
flourished for several years after the Civil War. It was a delegate 
body, consisting of representatives of local, state, and national 
trade associations the membership of which at one time was reported 
to be 640,000. Seven annual conventions were held, beginning in 
1866. During its brief existence the National Labor Union gave 
a considerable impetus to the eight-hour movement, and to the 
movement for public bureaus of labor statistics. It took an active 
interest in politics (in particular, Greenbagkism) and cooperation. 

National League of Women Workers. Organized 1897, to 
promote the interests of American working girls and women through 
clubs which offer social and educational opportunities. All clubs are 
self-governing, non-sectarian, and either partially or wholly self- 
supporting. The League nimibers 124 clubs, with an approximate 
membership of 18,000. Individual clubs are federated into State 
Leagues, which in turn are members of the National League. 

National Minimum. A phrase brought into cturency by 
Sidney Webb to characterize the proposal for establishing national 
standards of education, sanitation, health, labor, and so forth, below 
which no member of an industrial community must be permitted 
to sink. This phrase is sometimes applied specifically to wages and 
hours. 

National Officers. In the central organization of nearly 
all American national or international unions there are found at 
least two permanent salaried officials — a president and a secretary 
or secretary-treasmrer. "The president acts as chairman at meet- 
ings of the national convention and of the general executive 
BOARD. He has supervision over the administrative affairs of the 
organization. He is a policeman enforcing the rules, and is fre- 
quently also a judge. He travels often to various parts of the country 
to organize new local unions, to encovu-age the weak ones, and to 
adjust disputes between the workmen and their employers. The 
secretary or secretary-treasurer acts as secretary at meetings of 
the convention and of the general executive board. He serves as 
a meditim of communication between the local societies and the 
central union. He edits the trade organ, save in a few organiza- 
tions which have created a special official for this purpose or which 

[341] 



entrust the president with this duty. He keeps the financial accounts, 
and in a large majority of unions also has charge of the funds." 
In some of the larger unions, however, the funds are in charge of a 
separate ofQcer, the treasurer; and the secretary- is further relieved 
by several subordinate paid officials, each handling a specialized 
branch of secretarial work. The president, also, is assisted by various 
travelling officials — strike deputies, organizers, label agitators, 
etc. There may be, in addition, one or more vice-presidents, who 
in some cases attend to the field work of the organization. The 
national officers are elected sometimes by popular vote, sometimes 
by the national convention, and they are usually subject to the 
authority of the convention in other than routine matters. Their 
powers are also limited, as a rule, by the general executive board. 
(See Trade Union Government — National; Deputy System; 
Statisticians.) 

National or International Union. In the American labor 
movement the national and international unions represent practically 
a single type. The typical national union aspires to control all the 
workers of a single craft or trade, or of all crafts or trades in a single 
industry, in the United States. The international union aspires to 
similar control, but includes also workers in Canada and (in a few 
cases) Mexico. It sometimes happens that unions which are called 
"national" do not in fact have members outside of a limited terri- 
tory^ — as for example, certain unions in the cotton trade, whose 
mxembership is practically confined to New England. National 
and international unions are made up of local unions, which possess 
more or less complete autonom}^ and which join in one way or another 
in the government of the general body. The latter's functions are 
thus stated in Hoxie's "Trade Unionism in the United States": 
"Through its officers, organizers, and charters, it creates locals 
and intermediate subordinate organizations. Through charters and 
constitutional provisions it determines membership, and m.ember- 
ship conditions and privileges; the fimctional character of locals; 
their officers and duties; discipline of members and general conduct 
of the affairs of the local. Through the constitution it determines 
the general economic policy and methods of the local — formulates 
the general w^orking rules; sanctions or rejects local demands 
upon employers; determines the rules for negotiating agreements 
and for the calling and conduct of strikes. Through the constitution 
and officers. 'it controls and administers the general finances and 
insurance, funds of the union. It publishes the trade organ and 

[342] 



is the general source of the trade propaganda material and publicity." 
Generall}^ the structural units of a national union are the central 
organization and its various locals; but some unions have certain 
intermediary bodies, such as local, district, and state councils, or 
other delegate organizations representative usually of the locals. 
The great majority of national or international unions are affiliated 
in the American Federation of Labor. Of the titles assimied by 
the type of labor organization dealt with in this paragraph, the com- 
monest are "union," "association," "brotherhood," "society," 
** alliance," "order," "league," etc. These names are used with 
various descriptive or impressive adjectives. In some cases the 
organization is known by such a title as "United Mine Workers of 
America" or "International Jewelry Workers." (See Trade Union 
Government — National; Members at Large; Railway Broth- 
erhoods; International.) 

National Safety Code Committee. See Safety Codes. 

National Socialist Party (British). See Social Democratic 
Federation. 

National Trades' Union. The pioneer national organization 
of wage-earners in the United States; formed at New York City 
in 1834, as a federation of local unions and of the central trades 
unions in different cities. It began merely as an advisory body with 
no disciplinary powers; but its constitution was altered in 1836 to 
allow it to exercise certain authority over its constituent bodies. It 
disappeared after the panic of 1837. 

National War Labor Board. A Federal board of arbitra- 
tion formed in 19 18, under the supervision of the United States 
Department of Labor, to adjust industrial disputes in plants 
engaged in work essential to the war. It was composed of an equal 
number of members nominated respectively by the American 
Federation of Labor and the National Industrial Conference 
Board, and had two chairmen, one representing each side. The 
principles which it adopted as a basis of procedure, and its subse- 
quent awards, set up many precedents in labor adjustment. It was 
dissolved at the end of June, 1919. 

National Women's Trade Union League of America. 

Formed in 1905, to secure the organization of all women workers 
of the United States into trade unions, with equal pay for equal 
WORK, the eight-hour day, a living wage, and full citizenship 

[ 343 ] 



for women. The League admits to membership all working women, 
whether trade unionists or not, and women who, though not of the 
"working class," are interested in the League's purposes. Several 
city leagues subordinate to the national body have since been formed. 
The League holds biennial conventions, keeps several women organ- 
izers in the field, maintains a school at Chicago in which women 
are trained for work as organizers, and through both national and 
local bodies takes an active part in various labor activities. (See 
International Congress of Working Women.) 

Nationalization. As ordinarily used, this phrase simmiarizes 
the demand, voiced by a considerable section of the labor movement 
in every large country, that the existing machinery of industrial 
production and distribution, in particular such fundamental social 
assets as land, mines, railways, etc., be transferred from private 
capitalistic to public governmental ownership, and conducted on 
a non-competitive basis for the benefit of the nation as a whole. 
Nationalization means simply the transfer from private to communal 
ownership of any or all of the means of production or distribution. 
Such transfer could be effected either by government purchase or 
by government expropriation in the public interest. "Nationaliza- 
tion" has been called an unfortunate term in that it covers in a single 
ambiguous word two separate and distinct functions — ownership 
and administration. Public ownership is not an end, but a means 
to an end; and when the question of ownership has been settled, 
that of administration remains for separate solution. This latter 
may take any one of half a dozen forms — some centralized and some 
decentralized. Nationalization on a comprehensive scale is the cen- 
tral item in the creed of socialism in general, and of State socialism 
in particular. (See Socialization; Industrialized Nationaliza- 
tion; Nationalization in Russia; Plumb Plan; Sankey Com- 
mission; Reichskohlenrat ; Nationalizers.) 

Nationalization in Russia. According to the report of the 
British labor delegation, issued in July, 1920, practically all of the 
large industries of Russia — the coal, iron, gold, and platinum mines, 
the oil wells, locomotive and machine works, metal industries, 
textile industries, railways and shipping — together with certain 
smaller industries such as salt and cem.ent making, have been taken 
over by the national government. The retail shops have also been 
nationalized, and so has banking. In the case of the shops, this has 
led in practice to their closing, but not to the stoppage of retail 
trade. Banking, on the other hand, is being converted into a central 

[344] 



bookkeeping department of the State. There are 5000 nationalized 
enterprises, of which 2500 are grouped into 179 "trusts" and are 
directed by the Supreme Council of Public Economy; the remain- 
ing 2500 are managed by regional economic councils forming 
part of the provincial organization but directly responsible to the 
Supreme Council, At the head of each of the large nationalized 
factories is a ** college of management," consisting usually of one or 
two persons nominated by the workers, one or two by the technical 
staff, and one by the regional economic council. The minor details 
of internal management are handled directly by the workers, func- 
tioning through their works committees and shop committees. 
(See Industrial Organization in Russia.) 

Nationalizers. Advocates of nationalization among British 
trade unionists are often so called. 

NationalverbandDeutscher Gewerkschaften (National Fed- 
eration of German Trade Unions). A federation of many of the 
so-called yellow unions or "peaceful unions" of Germany — 
those initiated or controlled mainly by large industrial concerns. 
The N ationaherhand is of recent formation; its avowed object is 
said to be that of "obtaining the strongest possible representation 
in the works councils, and of making these the organs of increased 
production instead of organs for the bolshevisation of German life." 

Native Labor. The problem of native labor in so-called 
"backward" countries, both tropical and non-tropical, is one of 
immense extent and gravity. As summarized in the "Labor Inter- 
national Handbook," this problem "falls quite easily into a two- 
fold category: (a) colored labor in the non-colonisable areas of the 
world; and (b) labor in the colonisable parts of the world. The 
difference in these two territories is that in the colonisable areas the 
white man can engage in manual labor; he can take to these countries 
his wife and family; there they can be educated and enjoy practically 
all the social amenities of the more temperate zones. White labor 
thus comes into definite competition with native labor. In the 
non-colonisable areas— roughly speaking, thirty degrees either side 
of the equator — it would seem that for all time the white man will 
be incapable of manual effort, although he may, with the advance of 
science, live for longer periods in these territories than is at present 
possible. There is a further division of quite a different order be- 
tween the colonisable and non-colonisable areas. In the former the 
main product is mineral, in the latter vegetable. . . . The prevailing 
forms of native labor in all these territories are the following: (a) 

[345I 



Forced labor; (b) Contract labor; (c) Peonage." Forced labor is 
of three kinds: (i) The indigenous or native form, consisting mainly 
of common commimity services required by the native rulers; 
(2) that demanded by the exploiting or "colonizing" government 
for porterage, bridge-building, railroad construction, etc.; (3) that 
used for private purposes, differing in no essential respect from 
SLAVERY. Under contract labor, the natives engage for periods of 
from six months to three years at an insignificant wage "and foimd" 
— the latter including housing, food, clothing, medical attendance, 
etc. The worst feature of this form of native labor is that, although 
the contract is a purely civil instrument, breaches of contract are 
treated as criminal offenses and often outrageously pimished. The 
third form, peonage, is separately dealt with imder that heading 
in the present volimie. 

Natural Selection. See Survival of the Fittest. 

Natural Taxation. See Single Tax. 

Naturalization Bureau. Originally a part of the "Bureau 

of Immigration and Naturalization, ' functioning under the juris- 
diction of the Department of Commerce and Labor, this Bureau 
was separately organized and made a part of the United States 
Department of Labor when that Department was created in March, 
1 9 13. The Bureau has control and supervision over all matters 
relating to the induction into fully qualified citizenship of foreign- 
bom residents in the United States. 

Navvy. A common laborer employed in excavation work of 
any kind is so nicknamed in England. The term is an abbreviation 
of "navigation," and originally had specific reference to a laborer 
engaged at canal-digging. 

Nederlandsch Arbeids Secretariat (Dutch Labor Secretariat). 
See Dutch Labor Organizations. 

Nederlandsch Verbond van Vakvereenigingen (Dutch Fed- 
eration of Trade Unions). See Dutch Labor Organizations. 

Nederlandsch Verbond voor Neutrale Vakvereenigingen 
(Dutch Federation of Neutral Trade Unions). See Dutch Labor 
Organizations. 

Needle Trades. The various trades concerned in the manu- 
facture of clothing, cloaks, suits, dresses, waists, skirts, kimonos, 

[346I 



undergarments, waterproof garments, millinery, lace, embroidery, 
cloth hats and caps, etc., are generally so called. 

Negative Boycott. See Boycott. 

Negro Economics Division. Organized in 191 7, as a section 
of the United States Department of Labor, to formulate plans 
for increasing the efficiency and opportunities of negro wage-earners 
and for improving their relations with white workmen and white 
employers, and to advise the Secretary of Labor regarding labor 
conditions and problems in which the interests of the ten million 
colored American citizens might be involved. With the cooperation 
of a large field organization, the Division did efficient service for 
two years, and clearly demonstrated its necessity as a permanent 
agency of public welfare. But owing to the withdrawal of financial 
support on the part of Congress, it has now largely ceased to function. 

Negro Labor. It has been estimated that one-seventh of the 
total industrial work of the United States is performed by negro 
laborers. The negro in the South supplies most of the unskilled 
labor. The average colored family lives on much less than the white 
family in the same locality; and the unskilled white rural laborer, 
in localities where negroes constitute the major proportion of the 
labor supply, is thereby excluded from selling his labor in that 
market. In agricultural work, particularly, unskilled negro labor 
predominates in nearly all of the southern states. During the recent 
war, negro workers in large numbers migrated to the north, the 
movement being largely induced by northern employers, chiefly 
railway corporations, whose labor supply had fallen off enormously 
as a result of the war. This exodus has continued to a considerable 
extent since the war, creating altogether some serious problems in 
connection with both southern agriculture and northern industry. 
The number of negro women and children gainfully employed in 
the United States is unusually large in proportion to the nimiber of 
white workers. (See Color Line in Trade Unionism; Negro 
Economics Division; Agricultural Labor.) 

Neo -Marxians. Those followers of Karl Marx who have 
made critical revision of his theories, and refuse to accept all the 
tenets and implications of scientific socialism, are sometimes 
so called. They divide, in the main, into revisionists and advo- 
cates of syndicalism, 

Netherlands, Labor Organizations in the. See Dutch Labor 
Organizations. 

[347] 



Neutral Chairman. See Impartial Chairman. 

New England Contract Plan. One form of the contract 
SYSTEM which has been widely adopted in the United States, par- 
ticularly in the metal- working industries. Under this plan, as sum- 
marized by F. S. Halsey, "certain leading men, who are called some- 
times foremen and sometimes contractors, are given contracts for 
doing certain work. The shop and its facilities are the property of 
the employer, but the contractors proceed much as though the shop 
was their own. They engage the help and arrange their rates of pay, 
this pay being by the day, the men as a whole having no interest 
in the contracts. The contractors are not capitalists and do not 
furnish the capital or pay their men, who are paid by the employer 
precisely as though there were no contract plan in the shop, but 
the wages as paid are charged against the various contracts, and as 
the work is turned in the contractors are paid the difference between 
the contract price and the wages paid out." 

New Model of Trade Unionism. While this term has been 
applied to various types of trade union structure originated during 
the past fifty or seventy-five years, it is perhaps most applicable to 
the plan of organization adopted in the formation of the British 
National Union of Railwaymen in 19 13. This plan is described 
at length in the new (1920) edition of Mr. and Mrs. Webb's "His- 
tory of Trade Unionism." The underlying basis is that known as 

EMPLOYMENTAL UNIONISM. (See AlL GrADES MOVEMENT.) 

New Politics. This phrase is sometimes used to denote the 
conditions brought about by the entry of the working classes into 
the political field, with the consequent shifting of emphasis from 
political to economic values in government. 

New Unionism. While the terms "new unionism" and "old 
unionism" have been used all through the trade imion movement 
to designate alternating phases of policy and purpose at different 
periods, the phrase "new unionism" has become rather definitely 
attached to the revolt, originating in England about the time of the 
famous London dockers' strike of 1889, against the type of "ex- 
clusive" BUSINESS UNIONISM whicli barred unskilled workers and 
emphasized insurance, wage increases, improved working conditions, 
etc. In general, the term "new unionism" now denotes unionism 
with a revolutionary social aim, organized on an industrial rather 
than on a craft basis, including the unskilled workers and relying 

[348] 



more upon direct action than upon political action. (See Old 
Unionism.) 

New Zealand Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act. 

A measure, first enacted in 1894 and since considerably amended, 
which represents the first important scheme of State compulsory 
arbitration in trade disputes. Under this act New Zealand is 
divided into eight industrial districts, with a joint Board of Con- 
ciliation (composed of employers and employees in equal ntmiber) 
for each district. After a dispute has been brought before one of 
these boards a strike or lockout in connection with the dispute is 
thenceforth illegal. The board's award is compulsory unless appeal 
is taken within one month to the central Court of Arbitration. The 
latter body consists of one member representing workers, one repre- 
senting employers, and a justice of the Supreme Coiu-t. This bedy, 
like the district Boards of Conciliation, has legal power to enforce 
its decisions, individual members of the unions or employers' associa- 
tions being liable for the payment of fines up to a certain amount. 
The original Act provided for a system of registration for trade 
unions and employers' associations; no unregistered union or asso- 
ciation, and no individual employer or employee, could bring a dis- 
pute before a district board. Under a late amendment, however, 
a single employer may now register under the Act. Practically 
the same system has been adopted in Western Australia. (See New 
Zealand Labor Movement.) 

New Zealand Labor Movement. As an effect of the elaborate 
system of State socialism carried out in New Zealand during the 
period 1890-19 14, labor organization in that country has been of 
comparatively recent growth. The system of compulsory arbi- 
tration under the New Zealand Industrial Conciliation and 
Arbitration Act, with the accompanying governmental regulation 
of wages and horn's, resulted in a state of industrial peace from 1894 
to 1905, and New Zealand became famous as the "country without 
strikes." But since 1905 strikes have occurred with increasing fre- 
quency, and discontent with the compulsory arbitration law is now 
widespread. In 1920 there were 380 trade unions in New Zealand, 
with 82,553 members— or about seven per cent of the total popula- 
tion. Of these unions, 190 were organized in thirty associations, 
mainly national federations of single crafts. The two predominant 
groups are the New Zealand Workers' Union, which organizes the 
mass of the rural workers and is linked up with the powerful Aus- 
tralian Workers' Union; and the Alliance of Labor, which grew 

1 349] 



up out of the affiliations of the Waterside and Transport Workers 
and the Miners, and now includes, among others, railway and 
transport workers, miners, engineers, and metal workers, on a basis 
of industrial departments. In November, 1920, a joint conference 
of the Workers' Union, the Alliance of Labor, and other federations 
was held to promote unity in industrial organization, and, in par- 
ticular, to find som_e basis for the unification of the two predominant 
groups. The political interests of organized labor are represented 
by the New Zealand Labor Party, which is definitely socialistic in 
policy. 

New Zealand Labor Party. See New Zealand Labor 
Movement. 

New Zealand Workers' Union. See New Zealand Labor 
Movement. 

Newlands Act. A Congressional act of 19 13, creating the 
United States Board of Mediation and Conciliation for the 
settlement of controversies between employers and employees en- 
gaged in interstate transportation. It superseded the Erdman Act 
of 1898. 

Night Work. While necessary in essentially continuous in- 
dustries, night work has normally no justification under other con- 
ditions, and it is strongly opposed on both economic and social 
grounds by organized labor. Many of the 14th century craft guilds 
expressly prohibited night work; and there have been cases of Amer- 
ican trade unions which refused to admit habitual night workers. 
Even from the employer's point of view, though it permits of more 
continuous use of plant and equipment, night work is uneconomical 
ovvdng (in part) to higher charges for wages, lighting, heating, super- 
vision, etc. From the worker's point of view, it is attended by serious 
physical and moral dangers — particularly in the case of women and 
children. According to Commons and Andrews, the investigations 
of the International Association for Labor Legislation, begun 
in 1 90 1, "clearly demonstrated that recovery from fatigue is ob- 
tained mainly through rest and sleep, and that sound sleep can rarely 
be secured in the daytime, especially in the noisy and crowded homes 
of many working people in industrial cities. The lack of sunlight 
tends to produce ansemxia and tuberculosis and to predispose to 
other ills. Night v/ork brings increased liability to e^^e strain and 
accident. Serious moral dangers also are likely toj-esult from the 
necessity of travelling the streets alone at night, and from the inter- 

[350] 



ference with normal home Hfe. From an economic point of view, 
moreover, the investigations showed that night work was unprofit- 
able, being inferior to day work both in quality and in quantity. 
Wherever it has been abolished, in the long run the efficiency both 
of the management and of the workers was raised. Furthermore, 
it was found that night work laws are a valuable aid in enforcing 
acts fixing the maximum period of employment." Night work for 
women in all industries or in certain selected industries is now for- 
bidden in nearly all European countries and in about a dozen states 
of this country. Some forty states have prohibited night work for 
children under sixteen. There is practically no existing legislation 
of this sort with regard to adult males. 

Nihilism. From the Latin word nihil, meaning "nothing"; 
the philosophy or belief of a small intellectual extremist section of 
Russian revolutionaries, who were popularly supposed to strive for 
universal destruction of all existing forms of society, without having 
any constructive plan to substitute for those forms. The assassina- 
tion of high political officials was for a time prominent among their 
methods. Nihilism, never a very clearly defined creed and having 
but few followers, has practically disappeared since the overthrow 
of the Czarist regime in Russia. 

Nominal Wages. See Wages. 

Non -Economic Strike. See Political Strike. 

Non -Partisan League. An association of farmers, organized 
in North Dakota in 19 15, which has spread rapidly throughout the 
northwest. Its general purpose is to secure the election of govern- 
ment officials, and the subsequent enactment of legislation, "favor- 
able to the establishment and operation by the State of the indus- 
tries and facilities necessary to insure the efficient and equitable 
financing of farm operations and economic marketing of farm prod- 
ucts so as to protect the farmers' earnings and to conserve soil 
fertility." Thus, the League is essentially a political movement 
which seeks to correct certain industrial abuses and to attain definite 
economic results. But its detailed programme covers a much wider 
field. The League identifies itself with no party, but nominates its 
candidates ordinarily by endorsing candidates in the old parties 
who accept its principles. While membership in the League is re- 
stricted to bona fide farmers, it has from the first adopted a policy 
of cooperation with labor organizations. During the first six years 
of its existence the League has established itself on a substantial 

[351] 



basis in at least a dozen states, notably in the two Dakotas and 
Minnesota. (See Working People's Non-Partisan League.) 

Non-Union Shop. An establishment in which wages, hours, 
and general conditions of employment are fixed by the employer, 
instead of by joint agreement with a trade union. If emplojnnent 
is refused to trade unionists as such, the non-union shop becomes an 
"anti-union shop." But even if trade unionists are employed without 
discrimination, the establishment is nevertheless non-union as long 
as collective bargaining in the trade union sense is not recognized 
or practiced. (See Open Shop; American Plan.) 

Norfolk Idea. During a recent strike of machinists at Nor- 
folk, Va., following an employers' effort to enforce the open shop 
policy, the International Association of Machinists purchased an 
overdue mortgage against one of the largest Norfolk plants. With 
this weapon they forced the plant to renew operations on a union 
basis; and when the local banks withdrew credit from the "offending" 
concern, the Machinists Association itself advanced the needed 
credit. These tactics finally brought complete victory to the strikers, 
against the combination of bankers and employers' association con- 
ducting the open shop "drive." This transference of strategy from 
DIRECT action to the field of finance has been termed the "Norfolk 
Idea," and labor leaders are now giving it close consideration as sug- 
gesting a new and favorable approach to workers' control of 
industry. 

Normal Day or Normal Week. The number of working hours 
per day or week that has been established, through collective 
bargaining, by law, or by custom, as the standard for one industry 
or for all industries within a certain geographical area. In a larger 
sense, a standard number of working hours per day or week demanded 
for all industrial workers, and determined with reference to two 
main factors: (i) The physical, mental, and moral welfare of the 
worker, and (2) the maintenance of the standard rate. Mr. and 
Mrs. Webb use the term "normal day" in designation of the second 
class of trade union regulations involved in what they call the prin- 
ciple of the COMMON rule. "The regulation that work shall not 
be extended beyond so many hours per day," says George O'Brien, 
"is one which is peculiar to manual workmen and even amongst 
them is of comparatively recent conception. During the eighteenth 
century working hours were tolerated and accepted which would now 
shock the conscience of the public, but in recent times the whole 

1352I 



weight of the trade union movement has been thrown into the en- 
deavor to secure diminution of the working hours. Of course, the 
introduction of factory work and of large-scale industry renders 
the adoption of the normal day more easy than it was when workmen 
worked in their own homes, and the very simplicity with which 
the normal day can be enforced in factories where a large ntunber of 
workmen are employed makes it peculiarly a subject for legal 
ENACTMENT, as it docs not depend upon the peculiarities either of 
localities or of individuals." (See Short Hour Movement.) 

Norwegian Labor Party. See Arbeidernes Faglige Lands- 
organisation I Norge. 

Norwegian National Trade Union Federation. See Ar- 
beidernes Faglige Landsorganisation i Norge. 

Norwegian Works Councils Law. A provisional works 
councils act {Midlertidig lov om arbetderutvalg) was passed in Nor- 
way on July 22, 1920. The functions of the councils are advisory 
only, and no penalty is laid down for failure to comply with the terms 
of the law. In every establishment which employs regularly not 
less than fifty workers, a works council is to be formed, if demanded 
by one-fourth of the workpeople. The members of the council 
(who must nimiber not less than two or more than ten) are to be 
elected for a year from among such workers in the establishment 
as are over twenty-one years of age. The works council is to con- 
sider and express opinions upon the following points: (i) Important 
changes in the management, so far as they affect working conditions; 
(2) questions concerning ordinary scales of pay, piece work rates, 
hours of labor, overtime, arrangement of work during short time, 
holidays, and other working conditions; (3) workshop regulations 
and additions to or changes therein ; and (4) questions as to the setting 
up or the management of welfare institutions (sickness and funeral 
funds, savings banks, workmen's dwellings, etc.). Further, the 
council is entitled (and if requested by one of the parties is bound) 
to act as CONCILIATOR in disputes in which any worker is concerned 
if they relate to working conditions or to the dismissal of workpeople. 



o 



O. B. U. These initials are commonly used in popular designa- 
tion of One Big Union. 

Occupational Diseases. In a broad and general sense, "the 
morbid results of occupational activity traceable to specific causes 
or labor conditions, and followed by more or less extended incapacity 
for work." The commoner forms of occupational disease may be 
classified according to cause and nature of injury as follows: (i) 
Diseases due to gradual absorption of poisons — e.g., lead poisoning. 
(2) Diseases in which the poison or germ enters the system through 
a break in the skin — e.g., antlirax. (3) Skin affections from acids 
or other irritants — e.g., eczema, derm,atitis, etc. (4) Diseases due 
to fumes or dust entering the system through the respiratory organs 
■ — e.g., tuberculosis, gas poisoning, etc. (5) Diseases due to vibra- 
tions or constant use of particular members — e.g., neuritis, teleg- 
rapher's cramp, housemaid's knee, etc. (6) Miscellaneous diseases 
■ — e.g., caisson disease, miner's nystagmus, etc. In addition to all 
these, the term "occupational diseases" is often applied to many 
non-industrial ailments or disorders to which the public at large is 
subject, but which may nevertheless be caused or aggravated by 
specific conditions of labor. Nearly all civilized countries have 
enacted legislation designed to limit or prevent the more serious 
occupational diseases. In some cases the use of certain poisonous 
materials, as for example, white lead and yellow phosphorus, is pro- 
hibited altogether. In other cases children, women, or some classes 
of men are prohibited from handling certain dangerous materials or 
working under hazardous health conditions. The immediate report- 
ing of all cases of occupational disease is required under the laws of 
seventeen states in this country. (See Health Hazards; Indus- 
trial Medicine; Industrial Health Work; Industrial Physi- 
ology; Safety First Movement.) 

Occupational Union. See Craft Union. 

[354] 



Odborove Sdruzeni Ceskoslovenske (Federation of Czecho- 
slovak Trade Unions). The leading labor organization of Czecho- 
slovakia, formed as a separate entity in 1897, upon the refusal of 
the Austrian Gewerkschaftskommission to grant autonomy to the 
Czech unions under its jurisdiction. In 19 13 the Federation had a 
membership of 104,574. Owing to war conditions this total had 
dropped to 23,932 in 1916. Since the proclamation of the Republic, 
however, the Federation has made tremendous headway. In 1920 
the membership was stated to be 727,055, women members forming 
28 per cent of this total. 

Old Age Certificate. See Exempt Cards. 

Old Age Insurance. A form of social insurance which 
provides periodic pa3niaents to workers who are wholly or partially 
incapacitated for wage-earning by reason of old age. Such payments 
are often termed "superannuation benefits." Compulsory old age 
insurance, in combination with invalidity insurance, has been estab- 
lished in eleven European countries, and in the United States for all 
Federal government employees in the classified civil service. Other 
countries have voluntary systems of old age insurance, carried on 
mainly by mutual aid societies, assisted or unassisted by the State. 
"Straight" old age pensions, that is to say, annual payments granted 
outright by the government on a non-contributory basis, are provided 
in several countries. EsTABiiSHMENT funds in the United States 
usually make provision for old age pensions, or "retirement allow- 
ances" as they are often called, and some of the larger national 
or international unions maintain special pension funds for this pur- 
pose. Superannuation benefits are paid by many of the large British 
trade unions. (See Benefits; Massachusetts Savings Bank 
Insurance and Pension System; Social Insurance in Russia; 
Old Age Pension Acts.) 

Old Age Pension Acts. British Parliamentary enactments of 
1908 and 191 1, which provide for State pensions payable to every 
man and woman over the age of seventy whose income does not 
exceed £31, 10 shillings a year, and who has been for the last twenty 
years before receiving the pension a British subject and for twelve 
of those years (allowance being made for Crown service abroad and 
certain other instances) a resident in the United Kingdom. About 
one million persons in Great Britain now receive pensions under 
these Acts. 

Old Age Pensions. See Old Age Insurance, 

[355] 



Old Unionism. In general, unionism of the conservative type, 
la}^ng stress on insurance, craft autonomy, political action, etc., 
rather than on industrial action; and largely or wholly ignoring 
the unskilled worker. (See New Unionism; Business Unionism; 
Uplift Unionism; Coffin Society.) 

Omnibus Injunction. See Blanket Injunction. 

On -and -Off System. In general, the method of employing 
workers at irregular intervals and for imcertain periods, instead of 
for a definite number of hours each day or week. The "on-and-off 
system" is chiefly foimd in those industries which habitually utilize 
extra or relief workers, according to the var\^ing pressure of work. 
Thus, in telegraphy, an extra or relief operator might be given two 
hours' work in the early morning, another hour at noon, and two or 
three additional hours in the early evening. As he would not know 
when he might be called on, he would have to be continuously on 
hand from early morning until late evening, although idle most of 
the time. (See Grass Work; Bye-Turnman.) 

One Big Union. This term, like many others in the labor move- 
ment, is so loosely and variously used that any exact definition is 
difficult. To certain timid souls, any departure from strict craft 
unionism, any labor organization that follows the general structure 
and lines of an entire industr>% is "One Big Union." On the other 
hand, the term is often applied to any radical labor body, however 
relatively limited in membership and influence — such as the Indus- 
trial Workers of the World, or the South Wales Miners' Feder- 
ation, or the Workers' Industrial Union of Austr.\lia. Then 
there are certain labor organizations, notably the one formed among 
the workers of Western Canada in 19 19, which have definitely 
adopted the title of "One Big Union." But, in the broadest sense, 
the term denotes an ideal or purpose, rather than any present 
actuality — an ideal and purpose that have long exerted a powerful 
influence on the working classes of every country. In the broadest 
sense, the goal in view is a single world-wide organization of labor, 
coherent and coordinate and all-embracing, recognizing no distinc- 
tions of nationalit3% color, sex, or occupation, and representative of 
the united economic force and social will of the working classes of 
the world. A necessary step toward the realization of the interna- 
tional "One Big Union" is the formation of a nationally inclusive 
organization in every country. In this national sense, the "One 
Big Union" movement has perhaps made the greatest progress in 

[356] 



Ireland, where the stress of the revolutionary republican struggle 
has united the working classes in a remarkably homogeneous body. 
(See Class Unionism; Grand National; Irish Labor Party and 
Trades Union Congress; Irish Transport and General Work- 
ers' Union; Australian Labor Movement.) 

One -Break Day. A working day that is "broken " only by the 
interval allowed for the mid-day meal. The "one-break day" is a 
rarity in British industry, as usually several "breaks" or pauses 
are allowed for various purposes. 

One Day's Rest in Seven. The insistence upon one day of 
rest for the worker each week has long been an important item in 
the programme of trade unionism. But it is recognized that the rest- 
day for all workers cannot be Sunday, because certain kinds of 
industries require continuous operation. Not the seven-day week 
but the seven-day worker is the objectionable feature. In nearly all 
jBuropean countries and in some half dozen states in this country, 
so called "rest-day laws" have been passed which recognize in some 
degree at least the principle of "one day's rest in seven." These laws 
generally name Sunday as the day of rest, but permit the operation 
of CONTINUOUS industries on that day provided the worker is given 
some other free day during the week. Another class of laws, originat- 
ing primarily from religious motives, attempts to enforce Sunday as 
a day of rest ; but such laws have for the most part proved ineffectual. 
Yet notwithstanding trade union pressure, legislative enactments, 
religious scruples, and the force of enlightened public opinion, large 
numbers of workers are still required to labor seven days a week — 
sometimes, as in the American steel industry, for twelve hours a day. 

One -Man Shop. The form of small business — particularly 
common in the plumber, barber, tailor, job printer, blacksmith, 
painter, and carpenter trades — which is run by a single man or 
a partnership, with no other workers than possibly an ap- 
prentice or HELPER. The problem of the one-man shop is an im- 
portant one to trade unions. The competition of such a shop, accord- 
ing to Dr. Wey forth, "is unregulated; its proprietor is left free to 
work at prices that are out of the question for an employer compelled 
to pay the regular union rate of wages, and to prolong his hours of 
labor to a time far beyond the limits fixed by the regulation of the 
union. In fact, the intensity of competition for business insures the 
working out of this result. . , . The result of the presence of these 
small shops is the undermining of the strength of the union, since the 
24 [357] 



large employer of labor is compelled to meet the competition of such 
shops, and, in doing so, feels himself handicapped by regulations in 
regard to wages and hours that do not apply to the small competi- 
tor." In some trades the one-man shop is sometimes referred to as a 
"bedroom shop." 

One -Man Strike. A strike called to force the reinstatement 
of a single discharged employee. Such strikes are of fairly frequent 
occurrence, and sometimes involve thousands of workers — as in the 
case of the famous "Knox strike" of British railway workers in 19 12. 
In such a strike it is of course a principle that the workers are con- 
tending for — the principle that the employers' "right to discharge" 
shall not be arbitrarily or unjustly exercised. (See Victimization.) 

One -Man Town. See Company Town. 

Open-Door Principle. This phrase has its origin in the 
statement frequently made by employers: "My office door is always 
open to any employee who wishes to lay a grievance before me." 
Advocates of the "open-door principle" often assume that nothing 
further is needed to secure just and satisfactory industrial relations. 

Open -Mouth Strike. A workers' term, applied to the plan 
sometimes adopted by dissatisfied waiters, retail clerks, etc., of 
telling customers the exact truth about adulterated or inferior 
articles which their employer offers for sale. Or, in connection with 
factory workers, it may consist in letting the public know about 
shoddy or dishonest methods followed in the manufacture of certain 
articles. This practice is, properly speaking, a mild form of sabotage, 
the immediate purpose being to injure the employer. In France it 
is called la bouche ouverte — "the open mouth." 

Open Shop. Originally, an open shop was one where trade 
union members were permitted by the union to seek employment. 
To declare a shop "open" was equivalent to calling off a strike or 
boycott. Now, however, the term has a very different connotation. 
In present-day practice there are three main forms of open shop. 
First, there is the shop which, under joint agreement, is open 
alike to unionists and non-unionists, where both classes of workers 
are employed under the same wage scale and the same working con- 
ditions, without discrimination on the part of either employer or 
trade union. Open shops of this type have long been common in 
certain national industries (as for example, the railways) where con- 
trol on both sides is strongly centralized. They are in no way in- 
compatible with the methods and aims of trade unionism, or with 

[358] 



the legitimate independence of employers. But they depend upon 
three definite factors: (i) A strong and well-disposed association 
on each side; (2) the fixing of wage-scales and working conditions 
by COLLECTIVE BARGAINING and joint agreement; and (3) the refer- 
ence of unsettled grievances and complaints on either side to a 
joint board of union officials and the employers' association repre- 
sentatives. Where these factors prevail, the issue of open shop 
versus closed shop becomes largely an academic one. The second 
form of open shop is commonly and more properly known as the 
"non-union shop" — that in which wages, hours, and working con- 
ditions are fixed by the employer instead of by joint agreement with 
a trade union, although no discrimination is shown against individual 
unionists in the matter of employment. The third form is the shop 
which is "open" to non-unionists, but is "closed" by the employer 
to trade unionists as such, although some form of company union 
may be permitted or encouraged. This is the "anti-union shop," 
or what unionists often call the "employers' closed shop" or "closed 
non-union shop." It is around the two last-described forms of open 
shop — those in which collective bargaining is denied by the employer 
— that the present "open shop controversy" is centred. The vital 
point in this controversy, as every employer and trade unionist 
knows, is the matter of collective bargaining. Discrimination 
or non-discrimination in the employment of individual unionists is 
of comparatively small importance. Trade unionism is effective 
solely by virtue of the principle of collective bargaining and collective 
action. As far as the "open shop campaign" aims to nullify or 
destroy that principle, it aims at the nullification or destruction of 
trade unionism itself. Carefully concealed as this fact is in most 
public discussions of the subject, it is nevertheless the heart and sub- 
stance of the whole matter. (See American Plan; Union Shop; 
Preferential Shop; Mixed Shop; Lockwood Committee. 

Open Trades. Those trades or occupations in which the 
trade unions concerned in no way restrict apprenticeship or the 
learning of their members' occupations by newcomers. 

Open Union. A trade union in which membership is open to 
all workers in the same craft or occupation and locality, under 
uniform conditions which necessarily exclude no competent and 
honest member of the trade. This is by far the prevailing type in 
all countries. Opposed to this type is the so-called closed union, 
which endeavors to secure a monopoly of the employment in its 
field for a comparatively small number of workers. 

[359] 



Operative, (i) Any industrial worker, particularly one em- 
ployed in a mill or factory, is commonly so called in England. The 
term is also used in the same sense in the United States, although 
much less generally. (2) A private detective, or under-coyer man. 

Operator. In American coal-mining, the person, firm, or cor- 
poration in direct control of the working and management of a mine, 
whether as owner or lessee, is known as the "operator. " As the anthra- 
cite coal-mines are largely owned or controlled by railroad companies, 
the term ''independent operator" is often applied to an operator 
other than a railroad corporation. 

Opportunist, Opportunism. In the field of socialism or 

labor, an "opportunist" is one who believes in advancing his cause 
by taking advantage of opportunities and circimistances as they 
arise, without much regard to fixed principles, consistent practice, 
or ultimate objectives. Opportunism is the policy of moderate, as 
opposed to extremist, socialist and labor leaders. (See Impossibilist.) 

Order System. See Truck System. 

Organization by Function. See Functional Democracy. 

Organized Scabbery. See Union Scab. 

Organized Short Time. See Short Time. 

Organizer. A trade union official whose function it is to pro- 
mote the unionization of iinorganized workers, and to carry on 
general propaganda work in behalf of trade unionism. In the case 
of a newly formed national union this function is often assigned to 
one of the national executive officers; but as the union grows in size 
and strength the work is usually delegated to one or several per- 
manent travelling officials, who often act as strike deputies and 
perform other field duties as well. The American Federation 
OF Labor employs a considerable number of salaried organizers, 
besides many volunteer workers who are usually paid on a commission 
basis. The work of these organizers consists in the formation and 
building up of local unions in trades or industries in which no na- 
tional union exists, in assisting the national unions in the organizing 
of their trades or industries whenever possible, and in the settlement 
of disputes, the supervision of strikes, and other work of mainte- 
nance and conservation — both for the local tmions directly affiliated 
with the Federation and for other unions whenever called upon. (See 
Deputy System; Business Agent.) 

[360] 



Organizing District Delegates. See British Trade Union 
Organization. 

Osborne Judgment. A notable decision rendered in Decem- 
ber, 1909, by the British House of Lords, acting in its judicial 
capacity as the highest Court of Appeals. Formally, this judgment 
decided only that W. V. Osborne, a member of the Amalgamated 
Society of Railway Servants, was entitled to restrain that trade 
union from making a levy on its members and from using any of 
its funds for the purpose of supporting the British Labor Party, 
or maintaining members of Parliament. In effect, however, it crippled 
all British trade unions by virtual prohibition of political and edu- 
cational work on their part, and association for common purposes 
in other labor bodies. While partly modified by the Trade Union 
Act of 19 13, the Osborne judgment has not yet been completely 
overruled. (See Trade Union Act of 187 i.) 

Out -of -Work Benefits. Payments made by a trade union or 
by the public authorities to workers who are temporarily unemployed. 
In England, this is the most important of all trade union benefits. 
Aside from its protection of the individual from destitution while he 
is finding a new position, from the trade union point of view it also 
protects the standard rate and other normal conditions of employ- 
ment from being broken down by the competition of union members 
driven by necessity to accept the employers' terms. In England, the 
out-of-work benefit is sometimes called "idle money," or more com- 
monly the "donation." (See Unemployment Insurance; Travel- 
ling Benefits; Victim Pay; Registry System.) 

Outlaw Strike. See Independent Strike. 

Outlaws. A term applied in labor circles to individuals, 
groups, or shops that have broken away from their "regular" trade 
union jtirisdiction. An outlaw shop is one that refuses to accept the 
collective agreement between the workers and the employers in an 
industry. An outlaw local is one that has seceded from its national 
or international union, or that has been expelled. (See Vacation- 
ists; Secessionists; Independent Strike; Rump Union.) 

Output Committee. See Timekeeping Committee. 

Outside Shop. See Inside Shop. 

Outside Union. A term frequently used by employers in 
designation of any local or national labor organization in the regular 
trade union sense. The employer who uses this term obviously im- 

[361] 



plies that his own workers are organized in an "inside" or company 
UNION, but this is by no means always the case. 

Outwork. Any arrangement under which industrial operations 
are carried on elsewhere than in a factory or workshop provided and 
controlled by the employer of the workers. "Outwork" and home 
WORK are in the main synonymous terms, although outwork is not 
invariably home work. For instance, a group of garment finishers, 
working for a contractor or sub-contractor, may collectively hire 
one or more rooms outside their own homes, which they use solely 
for the purpose of a common workshop. Their work is thus outwork, 
but not home work. (See Outworker.) 

Outworker. In the commonly accepted definition, "a person 
to whom articles or materials are given out to be made up, cleaned, 
washed, altered, ornamented, finished, repaired, or adapted for sale 
in his own home or on other premises not under the control or man- 
agement of the person who gave out the articles or materials." (See 
Outwork.) 

Over -All Time Study. The process of determining, usually 
with an ordinary watch, the amount of time required in a complete 
industrial operation, the result being sometimes made the basis of 
a piece-rate wage. This should be carefully distinguished from the 

TIME AND MOTION STUDY of SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT, which COnsistS 

in "the analysis of operations into their elementary units, the deter- 
mination of the best methods and time for the performance of each 
of these units, and their summation into a total time for the entire 
job." (See Emerson System.) 

Over -Driving. See Speeding Up. 

Over -Production. In a correct economic sense, this term 
does not necessarily imply that more has been produced of an article 
than can be consvimed or used, or even sold. It means, according to 
Clay, that "more of the article has been produced than can be sold 
at a price big enough to repay its makers the cost of production, plus 
sufficient profit to induce them to go on producing at the same rate." 
Upon this point is based one of the arguments commonly urged in 
defense of limitation of output as a workers' policy. "It is because 
more goods are made than can be bought by people who want to buy 
them, it is argued, that the mills have to stop working, and wide- 
spread industrial depression occurs. So far as restriction of individual 
output would increase the aggregate share of the wage-earners in 
the social product, it would modify the tendency to industrial de- 

[362] 



pression, by increasing consumption; for almost all which the wage- 
earners are able to get is immediately consumed. But, beyond that, 
overproduction would be directly diminished by so much as each 
individual worker should diminish his own product." (See Under- 
consumption Theory.) 

Overlap. As described by Mr. and Mrs. Webb, "an 'overlap' 
between two trades, leading to a dispute as to which section of work- 
men has a 'right' to the job, may occur in more than one way. A 
new process may be invented which lies outside the former work of 
any one trade, but is nearly akin to two or more of them. In such a 
case, each trade will vehemently claim that the new process 'belongs' 
to its own members, either because the same material is manipulated, 
the same tools are used, or the same object is effected. But even 
without a new invention the same conflict of rights may arise. The 
lines of division between allied trades have hitherto often differed 
from town to town, and the migration of employers or workmen, 
or even the mere imitation of the custom of one town by the estab- 
lishments of another, will lead to serious friction. A new firm may 
introduce fresh ways of dividing its work, or an old establishment 
may undertake a new branch of trade. There may even be an un- 
provoked and naked aggression, by a strongly organized class of work- 
men, upon the jobs hitherto undertaken by a humbler section." Dis- 
putes concerning "overlap" (generally called "demarcation dis- 
putes" in England and "jurisdictional disputes" in America), while 
always frequent and often serious in the trade union world, occa- 
sionally develop into industrial wars of the first magnitude. The 
terms "encroachment" and "trespass" are sometimes used in a sense 
generally S3monymous with "overlap." (See Jurisdiction; Demar- 
cation; Right to the Trade; Vested Interests Doctrine.) 

Overman. In British coal-mining operations, a petty official 
having charge of some section of the work below ground. 

Overstrain. See Fatigue. 

Overtime. Time worked beyond the nimiber of hours estab- 
lished by COLLECTIVE BARGAINING, by custom, or by law as comprising 
the NORMAL DAY OR WEEK in a particular industry, occupation, 
or industrial plant, or time worked on Sundays and holidays, is so 
called. The increased rate of pay commonly demanded by organized 
employees for such extra working time is often known as "punitive 
overtime," the trade union theory being that it is usually unneces- 
sary and always undesirable to have overtime, and that the increased 
rate of payment is a penalty against the employer and intended to 

[3^5] 



act as a deterrent. "The position of the labor leaders logically 
requires that all work outside of regular hours be abolished. This is 
in fact the desire of all the more progressive union men, and the 
desire which is almost universally expressed in the collective 
action of the organizations. When overtime becomes systematic, it 
is said, it does not give any actual increase of wages; the nominal 
regular wages are certain to be cut down so that the workman's 
earnings will be no greater than they would be if the normal day 
were not exceeded. Even temporary overtime is regarded as injurious 
to the interests of the workers as a whole. There is a tendency to 
increase the hours of labor when times are bad, and so to spread the 
interest on the cost of the plant over more hours of work. The result 
is that when social conditions cause less work than usual, of a certain 
kind, to be demanded, some men do more than usual of it. When 
there would be at the best an increase of unemployment, unemploy- 
ment is made greater yet by the overwork of those who are employed. 
Only a few unions have, however, felt themselves strong enough to 
forbid overtime absolutely." From the employer's point of view, 
"the fact of overtime tends to lessen the working pace in the normal 
hours ; it increases fatigue and thus tends to emphasize all the con- 
sequences of fatigue — irregular attendance, sickness, physical de- 
bility. It tends, when long pursued, to increase labor turnover 
and to stimulate unrest." (See Compensatory Time; Straight 
Time; Time and a Half.) 

Overwork. While difficult to define in a precise sense, this 
term commonly denotes any excessive demand upon the normal 
physical capacity of an individual worker. This demand may be 
inherent in the nature of the task, without regard to time; but it 
is much more often connected with the length of the working day or 
week. In any continuous task a point must necessarily be reached 
where the relative output per hour of an individual worker begins to 
decrease rapidly. Other things being equal, this decrease indicates a 
condition of fatigue, and fatigue is simply the evidence of overwork. 
Even though production be fairly uniform throughout theworking day 
and week, a point is reached during a term of years when the relative 
output takes a downward curve. In other words, the worker has 
reached an age-point when his physique is not equal to the demands 
of his task — he has begun to be overworked. The implications of 
overwork are of large importance in connection not merely with in- 
dustrial production, but with good citizenship, family and home 
relationships, and social progress in general. 

[364] 



p. O. B. See Parti Ouvrier Belge. 

Pacer or Pace -Maker. See Speeding Up. 

Padrone System. In the early days of Italian immigration, 
the padrone ("patron," "protector," "master") was an importer 
of CONTRACT LABOR. He engaged with the American manufacturer 
or contractor to supply cheap labor — mainly for construction work; 
and then in order to secure this labor himself went to Italy, made 
individual contracts with Italian laborers at a low rate, brought 
the laborers to this country, and sold their labor for several times 
its cost to him. This form of the padrone system has, however, 
entirely disappeared. The padrone system at present is strictly 
a system of "bossism," and the so-called padrone is known by the 
Italians themselves not as padrone but as "the boss." His business 
is to collect a gang of newly arrived laborers, to find work for them, 
and to continue with them at their place of work; but he is not their 
foreman and not their contractor. He acts, perhaps, as interpreter, 
but mainly as the proprietor of the shanty or boarding house in 
which they crowd together for the time being. His profit is partly 
in the commission which he receives from the employer, but mainly 
in the prices which he charges for food and lodging. 

Pan-American Federation of Labor. Organized November, 
1918, and composed of the labor movements of the United States 
of America, United States of Mexico, the States of Central and South 
America, and Canada. The objects of the Pan-American Federa- 
tion of Labor are declared to be: "(i) The establishment of better 
conditions for the working people who emigrate from one country 
to another, (2) The establishment of a better understanding and 
relationship between the peoples of the Pan-American Republics. 
(3) To utilize every lawful and honorable means for the protection 
and promotion of the rights, the interests, and the welfare of the 
peoples of the Pan-American Republics. (4) To utilize every lawful 
and honorable means for the purpose of cultivating the most favor- 

[365] 



able and friendl}^ relations between the labor movements and peoples 
of the Pan-American Republics." The Federation maintains head- 
quarters in Washington, and holds an annual congress. 

Parasitic Industries. Those which depend for their labor 
supply upon "casuals," home workers, and other unorganized 
laborers, particularly women and children, under wages and 
conditions far below the ordinary industrial standards. The em- 
ployer in such an industry is clearly receiving a subsidy or bounty 
which gives his process an economic advantage over those worked by 
fully paid labor. The subsid}'^ comes in part from society as a whole 
in the form of drafts upon its physical himian resources, and in part 
from indi\dduals — parents, husbands, etc. — who must make up the 
difference between the worker's wages and the amount necessary 
for his subsistence. (See Sweating System; Sweat Shop; Sweater; 
Little Master; Home Work; Under-Employment.) 

Paris Internationale. See Internationale. 

Parliament of Labor. See Trades Union Congress. 

Parliamentarism. With particular reference to the labor 
movement, the theory or method of improving working-class con- 
ditions by the election of working-class representatives to national 
legislative bodies. Although the two terms are often used inter- 
changeably, parliamentarism is more properly only one form of 

POLITICAL ACTION. 

Parliamentary Committee, Trades Union Congress. See 

Trades Union Congress. 

Parliamentary Labor Party. Those members of the British 

Parliament, at present some sixty in niunber, who were elected or 
*' returned" by labor constituencies, are collectively so called. The 
Parliamentary Labor Party is virtually the Parliamentary represen- 
tation of the British Labor Party. 

Parlor Bolshevism. A term of derision often applied to the 
discussion and support of radical social theories on the part of those 
who belong to the intellectual or propertied classes, rather than to 
the working people. "Parlor socialism" is also used in a similar 
sense. (See Bolshevism.) 

Part Time. As distinguished from full time, this is less than 
the number of working hoiu-s which has been established as consti- 
tuting the NORMAL day OR WEEK in a particular plant or industry. 

[366] 



Part-Time Schools. Special schools or classes for children 
and others who are industrially employed. The instruction may be 
wholly of an academic character, wholly of a vocational character, 
or a combination of both. The part-time school devoted wholly or 
mainly to general academic instruction is commonly known as a 
CONTINUATION SCHOOL. Part-time schools which place main em- 
phasis upon VOCATIONAL EDUCATION are of two general types: (i) 
Those giving instruction in the particular trade or industry in which 
the pupils are employed — known as "trade extension schools"; 
and (2) those giving instruction to persons who wish to fit them- 
selves for a particular trade or industry other than the one in which 
they are employed — known as "trade preparatory schools." The 
part-time school of whatever type may be a part of the general 
educational system, or it may be provided by an individual employer 
for the sole benefit of his own employees. Where it is a part of the 
public educational facilities, attendance is compulsory in some coun- 
tries and in several states in this country, for a minimum number of 
hours, for children below a specified age limit; and such hours are 
usually counted as part of the time during which such children are 
legally permitted to work. While the terms "part-time school" and 
"continuation school" are often used indiscriminately or inter- 
changeably, properly speaking the continuation school is merely one 
specific form of the part-time school. (See Fortbildungsschule.) 

Parteischule. See Working-Class Education. 

Parti Ouvrier Beige (Belgian Labor Party). Because of the 
close-knit alliance between trade unionists, socialists, and coopera- 
tives which it represents, the Belgian Labor Party (founded in 1885) 
is one of the most effective working-class organizations in Europe. 
In this organization, it has been remarked, "socialism supplies the 
brain that directs, trade unionism the weapons for the fight, and 
cooperation the sinews of war." The Labor Party is a national 
federation with thirty-two district organizations which cover the 
whole of Belgitim. Membership is open to trade unions, cooperative 
societies, political organizations called "workers' leagues," communal 
socialist unions, and the political sections of friendly societies (mutu- 
alites). The complete establishment of socialism is the aim of the 
Party, which in 1920 had 540,000 members and seventy adherents 
in the national Chamber of Representatives. It is affiliated with 
the second Internationale. (See Commission Syndicale Belge; 
Belgian Trade Unions.) 

Partial General Strike. See General Strike. 

[367] 



Particulars Clause. An important section of the British 
Factory and Workshop Act of 1891 which provides, as regards 
textile manufactures, that the employer shall state in writing, before 
the job is begun, all the particulars (including the rate of payment) 
required for the precise computation of the workers' earnings. The 
clause has since been extended to cover a number of other piece 
WORK trades. 

Partido Laborista Mexicano. The national Labor Party 
of Mexico, formed in March, 1920. It is composed of both city work- 
ers and farm laborers, and is organized in national, state, electoral 
district, and municipal units, with subcommittees for small towns. 
The party supports the Confeder.\ci6n Regional Obrera Mexi- 
CANA (Mexican Regional Confederation of Labor), and endeavors to 
carry out that organization's programme in the political field. 

Partido Socialista Obrero (Socialist Labor Party). See 
Spanish Labor Movement. 

Partnering. See Team Work. 

Passive Resistance Strike. See Hartal. 

Passport Agreement, Japanese -American. See Japanese- 
American Passport Agreement. 

Paternalism. A term derived from the Latin word pater^ 
meaning "father." As most commonly used, it refers to the theory 
and practice of a government or of the ruling classes w^hich attempt 
close control and supervision of the social and economic affairs of 
the people, in much the same manner that a father deals with his 
children. Two forms of paternalism, each in direct opposition to 
the other, should be carefully distinguished. One form is that which 
would trust the conduct of himian affairs solely to the wisdom and 
beneficence of the possessing classes. "Just as the true solution of 
the problem of government was felt to consist in the training up of a 
wise, strong, and humane body of governors who would carry out 
with justice and selflessness the function with which they were en- 
trusted, so the industrial problem would be solved only when the em- 
ployers and the landlords understood that they owed a duty to the 
men of whom they were in charge. . . . The rich and the rulers must 
be converted by the teaching of the most enlightened among their 
number into an aristocracy of service." The second form is that 
represented by State socialism; the paternalistic functions in this 

[368] 



case are exercised not by individuals among the possessing classes, 
but by the governmental machinery of the State. Naturally enough, 
the most bitter opponents of this latter form of paternalism are the 
adherents of the form first mentioned above; the individual paternalist 
is commonly the last person who wishes to be himself patemalized. 
While the European labor movement for a long time leaned toward 
State socialism, there is now a marked tendency among the workers 
in every country to reject paternalism in any form. This tendency 
expresses itself most obviously in (i) opposition to anything which 
seems to place the representatives of labor under the dominance of 
reformers or of the representatives of organized capital — as for 
example, welfare work; and (2) opposition to all laws and govern- 
mental tendencies which may restrict complete freedom of action 
on the part of labor organizations. (See Benevolent Feudalism.) 

Patrimony. In labor affairs, this term denotes an old custom 
whereby the journeymen in certain occupations were privileged 
to bring their own sons into the trade as apprentices, and to instruct 
them in the processes of the craft. This custom still survives to some 
extent. The National Window Glass Workers, for example, make 
relationship a strict qualification for apprenticeship, while some other 
unions give the preference to sons of joume3rmen. It is also to be 
found in the cutlery industry of Sheffield, England. 

Patrolling. See Picketing. 

Patrolmen. In the district organizations of the Interna- 
tional Seamen's Union these are officers whose fimction it is to visit 
sailors' headquarters along the water-front, examine the cards of 
members on incoming and outgoing vessels, and collect dues. (See 
Shop Steward.) 

Pauper Labor. A phrase often used in arguments for a pro- 
tective tariff in the United States, particularly when such arguments 
are addressed to the working classes. It is intended to designate the 
"poorly paid" laborers of Europe, whose competition would theo- 
retically be disastrous to the "highly paid" American workmen, if 
the products of the latter were not "protected" by a high tariff. 

Pay Agencies. See Employment Bureaus. 

Pay Orders. See Script. 

Pay Roll Period. That period of time — one week, two weeks, 
a month, etc., — which in a particular plant or industry is taken as 
the basis for computing the amount of wages due employees. 

[369] 



Payment by Results. A general term applying to any system 
of wage payment in which the amount of wages is dependent in one 
way or another upon the amount of output. Straight piece work 
is of course the simplest and commonest form of "payment by re- 
sults," but numerous other systems, usually based on the bonus or 
premium plan, have been devised. In some cases payment by re- 
sults is worked on a purely individual basis, each individual worker 
being paid in proportion to his or her individual output. In others the 
system adopted is collective, and payment is made on the total out- 
put of a shop or group of workers without reference to the output 
of any particular individual. (See Piece Work, and the cross 
references thereunder.) 

Payment in Kind. See Truck System. 

Peaceful Picketing. See Picketing. 

Peaceful Persuasion. See Picketing. 

Peaceful Union. See Company Union. 

Pearled Strike. See Greve Perlee. 

Penetration. See Boring from Within; Dual Unionism. 

Pennsylvania State Constabulary. See State Constabu- 
lary; Inter-Church Steel Report. 

Pension Funds. See Old Age Insurance. 

Peon Labor. Unskilled workers of the lower classes are 
known as "peons" in Mexico and other Spanish-American countries. 
The phrase "peon labor" often refers to the peonage system; but 
more commonly it denotes the class of native Mexicans who are em- 
ployed in the United States as common laborers in railway construc- 
tion, fruit-growing, etc. Peon labor is particularly prevalent in the 
southwestern border states. 

Peonage. In general, a "status or condition of compulsory 
service based upon the indebtedness of the peon to the master." 
The term is commonly used in designation of a system, practically 
amounting to slavery, prevalent in South America and Mexico and 
sometimes practiced in the United States by lumber and mining cor- 
porations, southern planters, etc. In South America, Mexico, and 
the southern states, it consists specifically of holding a laborer in 
forced labor until his debts to the employer are paid. Such debts 
generally originate in advances made by the employer to the laborer, 

[370] 



Of in the payment by an employer o£ fines and costs in cases of mis- 
demeanor on a laborer's part, especially violation of vagrancy laws. 
As described in the ** Labor International Handbook," "the pro- 
cedure is that of encouraging the laborer to get into debt. It may be 
done by selling him an attractive blanket, or a mule, or it may be 
done by tempting him into an act of moral depravity. It is the 
first step which counts. Once the laborer becomes in debt, he is 
on the highroad to perpetual slavery in the form of peonage, for the 
astute creditor — generally the plantation owner — keeps one vicious 
principle in mind, namely, that of maintaining the debt at a point 
where it can never be overtaken. To the original debt is added 
interest, fines, additional loans, further sales, in many cases the 
manipulation of accounts, and the hundred and one venal practices 
which inflate the debt beyond any hope of liquidation. One of the 
most diabolical features of this situation is that although slave-trading 
is illegal in all these countries, the peon can in fact be bartered and 
sold, familes can be divided, fathers sold from children and children 
sold from their parents. All this is done in a regular manner." The 
term "peonage" is now generally applied to any method by which 
a person is physically held outside the law on any pretext, and made 
to perform labor against his will. Peonage in the United States is 
a direct violation of the thirteenth amendment to the Constitution, 
which forbids involuntary servitude except as a punishment for 
crime. (See Peon Labor.) 

People's Commissariat of Labor. One of the most important 
of the eighteen main executive divisions of the Russian Soviet 
government. It determines and directs the national labor policy, 
sees to the enforcement of the labor code, etc. At the head of the 
Commissariat is a People's Commissar of Labor, who acts as the 
President of an assisting "collegium" (committee) of nine members, 
five of whom are elected representatives of the All-Russian Coun- 
cil OF Professional Alliances, the other fotir being appointed by 
the Council of People's Commissars. The work of the Commissariat 
of Labor is distributed among several specialized departments, such 
as the Department of Labor Protection, the Department of Labor 
Distribution, etc. Local and district offices of the Commissariat 
are maintained in nearly all parts of Russia. (See Labor Inspection 
in Russia.) 

Per Capita Tax. The regular methods by which a national 
union replenishes its treasury are a charter fee on the organization 
of new locals, and a per capita tax of so much each week or month 

[371I 



levied on the local units in proportion to their membership. The 
per capita tax varies, in the main, from as little as two and a half 
cents a month up to as much as fifty cents a month. The amount 
is determined less by the ability of the members to pay than by the 
strength of the organization and the degree in which the system of 
BENEFITS has bccu developed. In a few cases, instead of being a 
fixed amount, it is a percentage of the wages of the members. Special 
ASSESSMENTS are also, as a rule, levied on a per capita basis. The 
constituent units of national federations and other federated bodies 
usually pay a periodic per capita tax to the federal organization. 
(See Stamp Receipt System.) 

Percentage of Unemployment. In statistical work, etc., the 
*' percentage of unemplo3anent " for a given month is usually secured 
by dividing the greatest number of persons employed during the year 
into the difference between that nimiber and the average number 
employed during the month in question. 

Permanent -Disability Benefits. See Disability Benefits. 

Permeation Policy. The method, long chiefly associated 
with the tactics of the Enghsh Fabian Society, of advancing the 
cause of socialism by impressing socialistic doctrines little by little, 
as opportunity offers, upon political parties and other non-socialist 
organizations, as well as upon individual members of society. 

Permit System. A term sometimes applied to the plan imder 
which a trade union, during a temporary labor shortage in the par- 
ticular trade concerned, might admit for a limited period workers 
from other trades, instead of permanently enlarging the union. 

Personal Record System. The method followed by many 
large corporations of requiring applicants for employment to fill 
out elaborate blanks, covering all details connected with the working 
career of the applicant — names of previous employers, terms of ser- 
vice with each, reason for changing positions, trade union affiliations, 
etc. It is often alleged by workers that the information thus secured 
is used in some cases for blacklist purposes. (See Rustling Card; 
Discharge Book System.) 

Personnel Administration or Personnel Management. 

As defined by Messrs. Tead and Metcalf, this consists in "the direc- 
tion and coordination of any [industrial] organization with a view 
to getting the maximum necessary production with a minimuim of 
effort and friction and with proper regard for the genuine well-being 

[372 ] 



of the workers." The principal functions or activities of personnel 
administration may be stated as follows: (i) Employment; (2) health 
and safety; (3) education; (4) research (job analysis, plant analysis, 
etc.); (5) service (recreation, lunch-rooms, etc.); (6) adjustment and 
joint relations. In nearly all large plants these activities are divided 
into two main groups, commonly known as employment manage- 
ment and WELFARE WORK, and a separate official is placed in charge 
of each group; but in some cases both groups are combined under a 
single personnel manager. (See Industrial Relations Depart- 
ment; Human Engineering; Labor Audit; Morale in Industry; 
Industrial Health Work; Suggestion System; Industrial 
Counsellors.) 

Personnel Department. See Industrial Relations Depart- 
ment. 

Personnel Manager. Attention given in recent years to 
problems of hiring labor, decreasing the labor turnover, rewarding 
efficiency, promoting from the ranks, developing morale, and doing 
away with unsatisfactory working conditions has created an em- 
ployers' official known as a personnel manager, who deals solely with 
the himian factor in industrial production. While the production 
MANAGER, or efficiency engineer, seeks to increase production largely 
by mechanical improvements, the personnel manager goes after the 
same result by creating and maintaining a loyal and efficient working 
force, by improving the general conditions of employment, by de- 
veloping special service features such as rest rooms, restaurants, 
recreational and educational opportunities, etc., by studying the 
psychology of the individual worker and supplying him with personal 
incentives and stimuli The administration of safety and health 
policies is also normally centralized in his department. (See Per- 
sonnel Administration.) 

Phalange. See Fourierism. 

Phalanstere. See Fourierism. 

Philippines, Labor Organization in the. The conception 
of trade unionism among the Filipinos, according to docker's 
"Government of American Trade Unions," was a result of the 
American conquest of the islands. "In 1899, shortly after the Amer- 
ican invasion, they made their first attempt to organize unions, and 
societies of barbers, cigar makers, tobacco workers, carpenters, 
wood workers, painters, lithographers, and others rapidly appeared. 

[373] 



A few groups of American workmen who had been attracted to the 
islands after the annexation organized themselves as branches of 
the trade unions at home. The Filipinos have avoided all alliances 
with the North American associations. They have not imitated the 
American method of forming federations of the local societies of 
each trade and of ftu'ther federating the federations into general 
labor unions. All their local societies are united irrespective of 
trade divisions into the Democratic Labor Union of the Philippines. 
Agents of the American Federation of Labor have endeavored to 
persuade them to adopt the American method of organization and 
affiliate themselves with the continental unions, but so far the 
Filipinos have held aloof." 

Philosophical Anarchism. See Anarchism. 

Pick Mining. The common designation among coal miners 
for hand as distinguished from machine mining — both methods 
being often followed in the same mine or mining district. 

Picketing. It is a common custom for workers conducting a 
STRIKE to place ''pickets" or "patrols" along the avenues of approach 
to the "struck" establishxment, for the purpose of intercepting pos- 
sible recruits for the employer, informing them of the situation, and 
endeavoring to dissuade them from entering his emplo3nTient. Pickets 
often perform other duties as well, such as securing information 
regarding the employer's plans and movements, or dissuading the 
public from patronizing an establishment against which a strike is 
in progress. Picketing has, as a rule, been considered legal in this 
country as long as it was "peaceful" — i.e., as long as the method 
followed was persuasion rather than intimidation. In actual prac- 
tice, however, the courts have repeatedly held that any form of 
picketing involves at least the threat or possibility of coercion, and 
it is therefore frequently declared illegal. "The practice of picketing, 
apart from open threats or intimidation, has been held illegal by courts 
of ultimate resort in several States. Injunctions against the 
practice are not infrequently issued by the lower courts in other 
States, where, perhaps, the higher courts would not uphold such 
injunctions. Two or three leading decisions have declared that even 
entirely peaceful picketing involves a degree of coercion. In one 
case a Federal court enjoined 'unlawful persuasion' of persons seek- 
ing employment ; and, while the phrase is vague, and is coupled with 
others restraining direct threats and intimidation, it seems to imply 
the idea that the stril^ers have no right to persuade men not to take 

[374] 



their places, presumably because this would interfere with the con- 
duct of business by the employer. This idea of the illegality of 
interference with the employer's business is doubtless held also by 
the various inferior courts which have recently prohibited by injunc- 
tion even peaceful persuasion of those seeking employment. The 
supreme court of Pennsylvania has even asserted that it is unlawful 
to consume the time of men seeking employment by urging them not 
to do so." In at least three states — Alabama, Colorado, and Utah — 
picketing is a statutory misdemeanor, and many cities have passed 
ordinances to the same effect. In England, the Trade Disputes 
Act of 1906 expressly legalized peaceful picketing; but there, as 
here, the courts are prone to deny that such a thing as ** peaceful 
picketing" is possible, and the use of this trade union weapon is 
very seriously restricted. Picketing is entirely prohibited in France. 
(See Clayton Act; Chasse aux Renard.) 

Picture Brides. Under the Japanese-American passport 
agreement of 1907, Japan is free to grant passports to women com- 
ing to join husbands in this country, although such women may be 
of the laboring class and may become laborers here. A large number 
of the women thus admitted secure the right to come under the terms 
of the agreement based on a peculiar wedding ceremony or contract 
whereby women in Japan become the wives of men already in the 
United States, the class being popularly known as "picture brides." 

Piece Master or Jobber. A contractor who arranges to pro- 
vide the labor required for a particular job, receives a limip sum in 
payment for that labor, and makes his own terms with the individual 
workers whom he engages. Owing to trade union hostility, the piece 
master or jobber has been largely eliminated as a factor in industrial 
operations. (See Piece Worker; Contract System; Little 
Master.) 

Piece Price System of Convict Labor. Under this system 
contracts are made with persons, firms, or corporations under which 
the prison is fiu"nished by them with materials in proper shape for 
working; the materials thus furnished are converted by the labor of 
the convicts into finished products, which are delivered to the con- 
tractors at agreed prices per piece, the work of manufacturing being 
conducted wholly under the supervision of the prison officials. (See 
Convict Labor Systems; Prison Labor; Accord System.) 

Piece Work. Generally speaking, the method of wage pay- 
ment under which a worker is paid for each unit of production or 

[375] 



each unit of effort expended — instead of by the hour, day, week, or 
other time unit. While thus distinct in principle from time work, 
the prices paid for piece work are naturally determined in largest 
part by the amount of time consumed in the particular process 
involved. Thus, a common time standard is at the basis of both 
systems. "Where Trade Unions are strong, they generally attempt 
to secure a guarantee that the earnings of the piece-worker will not 
fall below the hourly rate of wages. Not only do the Unions seek to 
establish piece-prices on such a basis that actual earnings under 
piece work conditions shall be above the standard time-rate; they 
also demand an absolute guarantee that every worker shall receive 
at least the standard time-rate, without reference to output. In 
some few cases they have gone further, and have provided that, since 
piece work is openly advocated on the ground that it secures greater 
output and therefore greater effort from the worker, more than the 
standard time-rate (e.g., time and a quarter) shall be guaranteed to 
every individual who is working on piece work." The piece work 
system is usually adopted in industries where direct supervision of 
the worker is difficult, and where the work done is repetition 
WORK. Furthermore, it is easiest to establish and operate where the 
following conditions are present: (i) Where a given amount of 
effort and skill can be relied upon to result in a given product; 
(2) where the product is easily measurable in simple quantitative 
terms — e.g., by the ton; (3) where increased productivity means a 
considerable saving in standing charges, and thereby a reduction 
in the cost of production per unit; (4) where a highly developed 
system of collective bargaining exists or can be created. It is 
generally held by the workers themselves that the piece work system 
results in the giving of more work for the same pay; and it is even 
maintained that no intensity of exertion beyond a certain point will 
give any permanent increase of daily wages. Every employer has 
in his mind, it is said, a somewhat definite standard of fair wages for 
every class of workers. He is likely to assimie that all of them 
could, if they would, do as much as the fastest actually do. If the 
fastest considerably and habitually exceed the amount of earnings 
which seem to him proper, he is certain, say the workmen, to re- 
duce the piece price. The attitude of the trade unions of Great 
Britain toward piece work, as it appears to Mr. and Mrs. Webb, 
is simimed up in the following passage : * ' What the capitalist seeks 
is to get more work for the old pay. Sometimes this can be achieved 
best by piece work, sometimes by time work. Workmen, on the 
other hand, strive to obtain more pay for the same number of working 

[376] 



hours. For the moment, at any rate, the individual operative can 
most easily secure this by piece work. But not even for the sake of 
getting more pay for the same nvimber of hoiu-s' work will the ex- 
perienced workman revert to the individual bargain, with all its 
dangers. Accordingly, the trade unions accept piece work only when 
it is consistent with collective bargaining; that is, when a standard 
list of prices can be arrived at between the employers on the one 
hand and the representatives of the whole body of workmen on the 
other. As a matter of fact, this is practicable, so far as concerns 
anything above mere unskilled laboring, in a majority of the or- 
ganized industries, in which, therefore, piece work prevails by consent 
of both masters and men." This is no doubt the attitude of most 
American trade unions also. In actual practice, the piece work 
system assumes a number of variant forms, which are described else- 
where in this volume under separate titles included in the cross 
references below. (See Wage Payment Methods; Straight Piece 
Work; Collective Piece Work; Individual Piece Work; Mutu- 
ality; Fellowship Piece Work; Bonus System; Premium Bonus 
System; Log System of Rate Making; County Average System; 
Payment by Results; Price List; Price Cutting; Piece Master; 
Price Adjuster; Clicking System; Price Committee; Speeding 
Up; Abnormal Place; Contract Mining; Move; Particulars 
Clause; Good from Oven; Bad Spinning.) 

Piece Work List. See Price List. 

Piece Worker. An employee engaged in industrial operations 
on a PIECE WORK basis. In England, this term originally denoted 
a contractor or piece master, and it is still occasionally used in that 
sense. 

Pin Money or Pocket Money Theory. The idea, popular 
with "sweating" employers, that most girls who enter industry do 
so merely to earn "pin money," that they "live at home," and con- 
sequently do not require a living wage. The pin money theory 
has been repeatedly punctured by thorough labor investigations. 

Pin Money or Pocket Money Workers. Those persons — 
principally farmers* wives and daughters, domestic servants, etc. 
— ^who put in their spare time and earn "pin money" by doing at 
home work that would otherwise be done in a factory. In the gar- 
ment trades particularly, where a considerable part of the "finish- 
ing" is done by pin money workers, the competition of such workers 
is an important factor in keeping factory or shop wages below a decent 

[377] 



subsistence level. The contractors and sub-contractors who usually 
control this work often establish warehouses in the country districts, 
and regularly distribute and collect garments among home workers. 
(See Home Work.) 

Pink Internationale. See International Working Union of 
Socialist Parties. 

Pinkertons or Pinkerton Men. See Labor Detective 

Agencies. 

Pit Boss. The foreman in direct charge of coal miners engaged 
in underground work. He is supposed to look after the safety of 
the men, as well as to secure the maximvim production of coal. The 
pit boss negotiates directly with the trade union pit committee 
in regard to complaints and grievances arising in the coui'se of work. 
The corresponding official in metal mines is called the ''shift boss." 

Pit Committee or Mine Committee. A body representative 
of the organized workers in a single coal mine, and charged with the 
adjustment of minor disputes arising between the workers and the 
management, as well as with the oversight of certain matters of trade 
union administration, in the particular mine involved. It corresponds 
in general, to a shop committee or works committee in other 
industries. (See Sub -Local.) 

Pithead Committee. See Timekeeping Committee. 

Place of Wage Payment. The one-time prevalent custom of 
"paying off" industrial workers in saloons or other public resorts, 
with its attendant evils, has been abolished in some states of this 
country and in some foreign countries by legislative enactment. 
Such laws usually provide that wages shall always be paid on the 
employer's premises; but in some cases they specifically prohibit 
payment in saloons, taverns, public houses, etc. 

Placement Work. A general designation for the activities 
of public and other employment bureaus in finding jobs for idle 
workers and workers for unfilled jobs. 

Planning Department. See Instruction Card System. 

Plant, (i) An entire industrial factory or works, in a given 
locality, including all units, operations, or departments known 
individually as shops. (2) A slang term used in labor circles to denote 
a spy introduced as a workman among other worlonen, or a trap set 

[378] 



to involve workmen in some discreditable occurrence. The terms 
"frame" and "frame-up" are also often used in the latter sense. 
(See Agent Provocateur.) 

Plant Committee or Council. See Works Committee. 

Plant Union. One that is representative of all the workers, 
regardless of craft distinctions, in a single factory or other industrial 
establishment. 

Plebs League. A British organization which seeks to "propa- 
gate the educational principles and policies upon which the Central 
Labor College was founded." The League originated among the 
m.ore radical students of Ruskin College, who seceded in 1909 and 
with their principal. Dr. Dennis Hird, helped to found the Central 
Labor College. Like that college, the League is frankly devoted 
to WORKING-CLASS EDUCATION along the lines of Marxian socialism. 

Pluck Me Stores. Owing to the extortionate prices often 
charged by company stores, these are commonly known among 
workers as "pluck me stores." 

Plumb Plan. A proposal relating to the ownership and man- 
agement of the United States railroad systems, formulated by Glenn 
E. Plumb, a railroad lawyer, in 19 19. The Plumb Plan seeks to offer 
a practicable alternative to a bureaucratic scheme of public owner- 
ship on one hand, and the method of private control on the other. 
It would make the national government trustee for the entire railroad 
system. The management would be in the hands of a board of 
directors, consisting of fifteen members, five appointed by the Presi- 
dent to represent the public, five elected by the classified railroad 
employees to represent labor, and five elected by the railroad officials 
to represent the management. Government bonds would be issued 
to purchase the railroads, at evaluations determined by the courts. 
A gradual amortization would take place through the reduction of 
the outstanding indebtedness by one per cent each year. Profits 
resulting from efficient operation, after fixed charges were met, would 
be divided equally between the government and the operating force. 
Whenever the government's share of profits exceeded a fixed per- 
centage of the gross operating revenue, the freight and passenger 
rates would be automatically reduced to absorb the government's 
surplus. Advocates of the plan have urged its application to other 
basic industries of a "public service" nature — of course with such 
modifications as the character of each specific industry would make 

[379] 



desirable or necessar}^ The Plumb Plan has the endorsement and 
support not only of the principal railway brotherhoods, but of 
the great majority of organized American labor in other industries. 
It has a direct propaganda agency in the Plumb Plan League, which 
issues a weekly newspaper from its central headquarters in Wash- 
ington, D. C. 

Pocket Money Theory. See Pin Money Theory. 

Pocket Money Workers. See Pin Money Worriers. 

Police Power. In the United States, most of the so-called 
FACTORY ACTS and other legislative enactments in regard to wages, 
hours, and conditions of labor are fundamentally based on what 
is called the "police power" of the State. "But the proper extension 
of the police power is viewed differently by different courts. Regard- 
ing the nature of the police power in itself there is no difference of 
opinion; it is supreme wherever reasonably applicable, and may be 
invoked to restrict or limit the freedom of contract; but as to its 
extent there are differences of legal opinion. It includes the protec- 
tion of the health, safety, morals, and welfare of the public. These 
objects are indeed broad, and might apparently on their face justify 
many kinds of interference. The main point of difference in the 
decisions of the courts is whether the police power extends only 
to the protection of the public at large, or whether it can also be in- 
voked to protect the individual against himself, as when he is pro- 
hibited from making a contract which is injurious to himself. . . . 
Many courts have held that the police power can not be invoked 
to prohibit a person from taking industrial risks which imperil only 
himself and do not affect the community. This ruling, however, 
has not been applied in the case of factory laws, which have been 
enacted by more than one-half of the States, with the object of 
protecting employees from dangerous machinery and unwholesome 
conditions of work." 

Policing. Among British workmen, this term denotes what 
is regarded as needlessly severe or offensive oversight on the part of 
foremen or managers. 

Policing of Industry. The problem of policing industry is 
generally conceived to lie in the suppression of violence and the 
protection of life and property ; but in reality it consists in the more 
fundamental task of protecting the rights of both employers and em- 
ployees, as well as preserving the peace. In this larger sense, the 

[380] 



courts are included as an essential factor in the policing of industry. 
The task of protecting life and property and preserving the peace 
legitimately belongs to the public peace officers — municipal police, 
town constables, county sheriffs, and state constabulary — and 
to them only. If these authorities find the task beyond their powers, 
the aid of the state militia may be called for. Any employment oif 
armed bodies of men under private control is an obviously illegal 
usurpation of public authority, and of necessity denotes the break- 
down of orderly government. (See Armed Guards.) 

Polish Labor Movement. Until the independence of Poland 
was proclaimed by the Allies on November 9, 19 19, trade unionism 
had struggled against heavy odds under the Austrian, German, and 
Russian governments. Thereafter, however, it almost immediately 
assumed large proportions. The first Polish Trade Union Congress 
was held in May, 1920. There were then 560,000 members of the 
Social Democratic unions, and 388,000 members of other unions. 
The strongest association was the Agricultural Workers' Federation, 
with 150,000 members. The new Polish government has been no 
less ruthless than the old absolutist monarchies of Russia and Aus- 
tria and Germany in repressing radical or communist elements in the 
labor movement. 

Political Action. As opposed to industrial action, or 
direct action, in the labor movement, this term generally has 
specific reference to the use of the conventional machinery of party 
politics for registering working-class opinion and attaining working- 
class ends. But in common usage it may refer to almost every con- 
ceivable form of political activity, and to the relationship which does 
or might obtain between labor organizations and political parties. 
Also called ** indirect action." (See Parliamentarism; Legal En- 
actment.) 

Political Strike. As distinguished from the economic strike, 
this is a strike that is not directly concerned with relations between 
employers and employees, but seeks to enforce some political or social 
demand of the strikers. The ultimate end in view may indeed be 
economic, as in the case of a strike to enforce nationalization of 
coal-mines or railways, but the action is directed not against employ- 
ers directly, but against a government or public officials. Also called 
** non-economic strike." The political strike is practically always a 
general strike, of at least nation-wide proportions. (See Direct 
Action; Sympathetic Strike.) 

Population Principle. See Malthusianism. 

[381] 



Port Labor Committees. In England, bodies consisting of 
employers and trade tinion representatives in equal numbers, estab- 
lished in each important shipping centre dui*ing the recent war, for 
the adjustment of problems in connection with dock labor. After 
the armistice a central advisory port labor committee was formed, 
consisting of representatives of employers and labor organizations 
from each port. A model registration scheme was prepared by this 
committee, which was followed roughly in the various ports. The 
chief purpose of the scheme is to protect the ports against an influx 
of CASUAL LABOR. The System of port labor committees, with the 
central advisory port labor committee, constitutes what is virtually 
a Whitley plan organization. 

Porto Rican Free Federation of Workers. A considerable 
number of the manual wage-workers in the island of Porto Rico are 
members of local branches of various American international unions. 
In 1920 there were 206 such locals, affiliated in perhaps a dozen 
CENTRAL BODIES, and Comprising about 22,000 members. These 
locals and central bodies are federated in the Federacion Libre or 
"Free Federation," which occupies the same relative position to the 
American Federation of Labor as does a state federation. 

Portuguese General Confederation of Labor. See Confed- 

ERACAO GeRAL DO TrABALHO. 

Positive Boycott. See Boycott. 

Poverty. As simimarized in J. H. Hollander's "The Abolition 
of Poverty," the word "poverty" in ordinary usage is applied in- 
differently to three distinct conditions: (i) Economic inequality, 
(2) economic dependence, and (3) economic insufficiency. A man is 
said to be poor in mere contrast to his neighbor who is rich; this is 
economic inequality. Almshouses and public relief minister to those 
who in the eye of the State are poor; this is economic dependence. 
Midway between the modestly circumstanced and the outright de- 
pendent are the poor in the sense of the inadequately fed, clad, and 
sheltered; this is economic insufficiency. "It is poverty in the sense 
of economic insufficiency — its wide extent, its assumed necessity, 
its tragic consequence — that forms the real problem. There are great 
bodies of people in coiintry and in city who from birth have less than 
enough food, clothing, and shelter; who from childhood must toil long 
and hard to secure even that insufficient amount; who can benefit little 
from the world's advance in material comfort and in spiritual beauty 
because their bodies are undernourished, their minds overstrained, 
and their souls deadened by bitter struggle with want. These are 

[382] 



the real poor of every community — the masses who, not lacking in 
industry and thrift, are yet never really able to earn enough for 
decent existence and who toil on in constant fear that bare necessities 
may fail. Neither racial qualities nor national characteristics account 
for the presence of such poverty. It persists as an accompaniment of 
modem economic life, in widely removed countries among ethnically 
different peoples. It cannot be identified with alien elements in 
native race stocks." The British investigator, B. Seebohm Rown- 
tree, draws a definite distinction between what he calls primary 
poverty and secondary poverty. Families were said to be in primary 
poverty when their total earnings were ''insufficient to obtain the 
minimiun necessaries for the maintenance of merely physical 
efficiency." Families were said to be in secondary poverty when their 
** total earnings would be sufficient for the maintenance of merely 
physical efficiency were it not that some portion of it is absorbed 
by other expenditure, either useful or wasteful." While it is impossible 
to state with any fair degree of accuracy the extent of poverty, 
either in this country or abroad, the following statement from the 
staff report of the Federal Commission on Industrial Relations 
is of value: **It is evident both from the investigations of this Com- 
mission and from the reports of all recent Governmental bodies that 
a large part of our industrial population are, as a result of the com- 
bination of low wages and unemployment, living in a condition of 
actual poverty. How large this proportion is can not be exactly 
determined, but it is certain that at least one-third and possibly 
one-half of the families of wage-earners employed in manufacturing 
and mining earn in the course of the year less than enough to support 
them in anything like a comfortable and decent condition." In 
connection with this statement, it should be borne in mind that 
poverty is of less proportionate extent in the United States than in 
any other industrial country. (See Sickness Insurance.) 

Practical Man. Among trade unionists, a "practical man" 
is a fully qualified journeyman — one who has served the required 
period as apprentice or learner, and has gained a thorough knowl- 
edge and experience of his trade; while an "unpractical man" is 
one who does not possess these qualifications. Often the specific 
occupation is indicated — as in the terms "practical miner," "prac- 
tical printer," etc. In a somewhat different sense, trade unionists 
sometimes use the term "practical man" in designation of a man 
who is actually working at his specific trade or craft— as distinguished 
from one who has only a theoretical knowledge of the trade or craft. 

[383] 



Preceptory. A shop union of workers in the American 
window glass industry is so called. The plants in this industry are 
comparatively few and widely scattered, usually with not more than 
one plant in a locality; so that the preceptory takes the place of a 
LOCAL in the national organizations of window glass workers. 

Predatory Unionism. A term used by Professor Hoxie in 
his standard work on * 'Trade Unionism in the United States" to 
designate a functional type of labor organization whose "distin- 
guishing characteristic is the ruthless pursuit of the thing in hand by 
whatever means seem most appropriate at the time, regardless of 
ethical and legal codes or effect upon those outside its own member- 
ship." Of this general type, Professor Hoxie names two subspecies, 
the first of which he calls *' hold-up unionism." This variety is in 
outward appearance conservative, but in reality it is lawless and 
unscrupulous. Generally it is boss-ridden and corrupt, and fre- 
quently it combines with employers to "squeeze" rival employers, 
rival labor organizations, or the consuming public. Its methods are 
a mixture of open bargaining coupled with secret bribery and vio- 
lence. The second subspecies, which he designates "guerilla imion- 
ism," is distinguished from hold-up unionism by the fact that it 
operates always directly against the employers, never in combination 
with them, and cannot be bought off. " It is secret, violent, and ruth- 
less, seemingly because it despairs of attaining what it considers 
to be legitimate ends by business, uplift, or revolutionary methods." 
(See McNamara Case; Lockwood Committee; Violence in the 
Labor Movement.) 

Preferential Shop or Preferential Union Shop. A com- 
promise between the closed shop and the open shop which has 
been particularly successful in the American clothing trades. The 
principle of the preferential shop is thus applied : Whenever the em- 
ployer needs additional workers, he shall first make application to 
the union, specifying the number and kind of workers needed. The 
union shall be given a reasonable time to supply the specified help, 
and if it is unable or for any reason fails to furnish the required per- 
sons, the employer shall be at liberty to secure them in the open 
market as best he can. In like manner, the principle of preference 
shall be applied in case of discharge. Should it at any time become 
necessary to reduce the force, the first ones to be dismissed shall be 
those who are not members of the union in good and regular standing. 
It should be noted that the preferential shop is always conducted 
under a joint agreement, arrived at through collective bargain- 

[384] 



ING. (See Protocol ; Hart, Schaffner & Marx Labor Agreement ; 
Union Shop.) 

Premiiim Bonus System. A method of wage payment which, 
in various specialized forms, has been widely adopted in American 
and British industry — generally in connection with plans of scien- 
tific management. Under what is commonly known as the bonus 
SYSTEM, a fixed sum is usually added to the ordinary time rate or 
piece rate as a reward for the worker's reaching or exceeding a given 
point of production. Under the various forms of the premium bonus 
system, on the other hand, the amount of the bonus or reward for 
special effort is not fixed, but varies according to the worker's rate 
of speed; and the basis of the system is always a standard time 
allowance in which the job is supposed to be done. If the job is com- 
pleted in less than the standard time allowance, the worker receives 
in addition to payment for the time actually worked a premitun or 
bonus for a portion of the time saved. Thus in its simplest form, 
known as the Halsey plan, if the standard time allowance for a job 
is ten hours, and the worker does the job in six hours, payment is 
made for six hours, and in addition for a proportion (very often a half) 
of the four hours saved in the job. This pa3nnent is at the standard 
hourly rate. Thus under the premium bonus system, the standard 
time-rate is practically always guaranteed to every worker. Both 
the standard time allowance and the amount of the bonus are de- 
termined by painstaking analysis. These factors, and others, differ 
under the different schemes into which the underlying idea of the 
system has been elaborated. The method of wage payment under 
the premiimi bonus system is sometimes referred to as the "progres- 
sive wage " ; but with equal propriety it might also be called, from the 
employer's point of view, "progressive profits," since, while the earn- 
ings of the worker increase with each increase of output, the em- 
ployer's labor cost and overhead on each unit of output usually 
fall in similar or greater proportion. (See Rowan Plan; Gantt 
System; Emerson System; Weir Plan; Three-Rate System of 
Wage Payment; Efficiency Payments; Reward Systems.) 

President's Industrial Conferences. In the latter part of 
1920 two national industrial conferences met in Washington, by call 
of President Wilson, to consider remedies for industrial unrest. 
The first consisted of three groups, representing employers and 
farmers, labor, and the public, respectively. It broke up through 
the withdrawal of the labor group after the other groups had declined 
to consider the existing steel strike, and after collective bargain- 

[385] 



ING, in the sense of direct dealing with trade unions, had been re- 
jected by the employers' representatives. The second conference was 
an assemblage of industrial experts and public men. It met in pri- 
vate, and as a result of its deliberations recommended the establish- 
ment of a national industrial tribunal and regional boards of investi- 
gation and adjustment, whose decision was not to be binding unless 
both parties to an industrial dispute consented to arbitration. 
The boards could, however, undertake investigation of any dispute. 
No action has yet resulted from this recommendation. 

President's Mediation Commission. An industrial com- 
mission appointed by President Wilson in the summer of 191 7 to 
investigate and if possible to adjust certain labor controversies in 
the Southwest and Northwest which had seriously checked the out- 
put of such war materials as copper, lumber, and oil. The President 
designated the Secretary of Labor as chairman of this Commission. 
After several months of constant investigation in the copper districts 
of Arizona, the oil fields of California, the northwest timber dis- 
tricts, and other sections where industry had been disturbed by 
labor unrest, including Chicago, where a strike in the meat-packing 
establishments was threatened, the Commission transmitted to the 
President a report which simxmed up its work in a concise description 
of the causes of labor difficulties in the United States. The creation 
of such war-time labor agencies as the National War Labor 
Board, War Labor Policies Board, and Woman in Industry 
Service was largely due to the Mediation Commission's report. 
(See MooNEY Case.) 

Pression Exterieure. See Dual Unionism; Boring from 
Within. 

Prevocational Education. Instruction given to young chil- 
dren who will later be obliged to enter industry, the piupose being 
"to permit them to sample different trade conditions and experiences, 
so that they can make an intelligent choice of occupation." 

Price Adjuster. An official appointed and paid jointly by 
the trade unions and the employers in certain industries (notably 
the New York cloak, suit, and skirt industry), to whom disputes over 
PIECE WORK rates are referred and who has authority to decide such 
disputes. 

Price Committee. A group of workers who represent the 
employees of a shop or industry in negotiations with emplo3^ers about 
PIECE WORK prices. 

[386] 



Price Cutting or Rate Cutting. In the labor movement, 
this term commonly refers to an employer's reduction in the piece 
WORK wage paid on a particular job or kind of work. The circum- 
stances in which piece prices are cut vary considerably, but in gen- 
eral may be differentiated as follows: (i) Where the job remains 
unaltered, but it is contended that owing to error the original price 
has been fixed too high; (2) where the job remains unaltered, but the 
worker produces more rapidly owing to familiarity with it or to 
the presence of an inducement in the shape of a bonus or reward; 
(3) where the job is altered in such a way as, in the employer's opinion, 
to reduce the time necessary for doing it. The worker's grievances 
in connection with price cutting are often closely associated with 
those arising from speeding up. Indeed, it may be said that price 
cutting is itself a common form of speeding up. Trade union rules 
in LIMITATION OF OUTPUT are in large part directed against this 
practice. "If a few individuals increase their speed, their pace tends, 
it is declared, to becom.e the standard pace in the trade. If the 
work is by the day, there is no tendency to a corresponding increase 
of wages. The workmen assert that the case is nearly the same, in 
the long run, if the work is by the piece. Under piece rates there is, 
of course, an increase of daily wages at first, if the pace is increased. 
But every employer has in his mind a more or less definite standard 
of just wages for each kind of service. If the piece workers begin to 
earn more than he considers fair, he will cut down the piece prices. 
In the end the men will work harder than before, and will get no more 
for it. Here, therefore, as well as under the day-wage system, the 
STANDARD RATE is bcst maintained, the workmen think, by keeping 
within certain standard limits of performance." 

Price List. In industries or industrial operations where the 
piece work system of wage payment prevails, this is a detailed 
statement, usually in printed form and often of great complexity, 
setting forth in full the piece-work price to be paid for every job 
regularly executed in the industry. Such lists are sometimes estab- 
lished for a particular works and sometimes arrived at by agreement 
between the unions and the employers for a whole industry or a 
whole district, subject in many cases to modifications to meet the 
conditions in particular works. In some British industries, the price 
list is called the ''statement"; in others it is known as the ''list," 
sometimes preceded by the name of the particular craft or occupa- 
tion to which it refers — e.g., "spinning list," "weavers' list," etc. 
In the clothing trades it is generally known as the "log," and 

[387] 



among granite cutters as the "bill of prices." Other alternate 
general titles are "piece work list," "wage bill," and "standard 
price list." (See Scale; Mutuality.) 

Primary Arbitration. See Arbitration. 

Primary Boycott. See Boycott. 

Primary Poverty. See Poverty, 

Printers* Chapel. See Chapel. 

Printers' Home. See Childs-Drexel Home for Union 
Printers. 

Printing Trades Councils. See Allied Printing Trades 

Councils. 

Printing Trades International Joint Conference Council. 

Formally organized at Chicago in April, 19 19, by four leading unions 
and three prominent employers' associations in the allied printing 
trades of the United States and Canada. The chief purpose of the 
Council is to formulate matters of national trade policy, and to 
strengthen existing organizations on both sides by giving sanction 
to all local agreements between unions and employers, after they 
have been underwritten by their respective international unions. 
The Council is at present composed of sixteen members, eight from 
each side. 

Prison Labor. The competition of "prison-made goods" 
with the products of so-called "free labor" has long been a serious 
concern to American trade unionists. According to the latter, prison 
labor is a menace because of the following characteristics, summarized 
by Professor Carlton : " ( i ) It is a form of subsidized labor ; the prisoner 
must be fed, clothed, and housed whether he works or lives in idle- 
ness. (2) The labor force is always available; it cannot strike, nor 
can an individual worker withdraw in order to accept another job. 
(3) Convict labor and the output of convict-made goods will be very 
slightly affected by periods of depression or prosperity. (4) Convict 
labor is quite similar in many respects to slave labor; the motives 
which lead to industry are almost identical." The evidence in regard 
to prison labor taken by the Federal Commission on Industrial 
Relations is the basis for the following statements in the Commis- 
sion's staff report: "(i) The practice of using convicts in peniten- 
tiaries and prisons generally for the manufactvire of articles for gen- 
eral commerce has been productive of evil results as regards not only 

[388I 



the convicts but the general public. (2) The competition of prison- 
made articles has resulted in the existence of a low wage scale in many 
industries and has subjected the manufacturers to a kind of com- 
petition which should not exist in any civilized community. (3) 
The only beneficiaries of the convict labor system are the contractors 
who are permitted by the State to exploit the inmates of prisons. 
(4) The individual States are powerless to deal adequately with the 
situation because of the interstate shipment of convict-made goods. 
It is suggested that the Commission recommend: (i) The aboli- 
tion as far as possible of indoor manufacture, and the substitution 
of such outdoor work as that upon State farms and State roads, 
providing that where prisoners are employed they should be compen- 
sated and that the products which they manufacture should not be 
sold in competition with the products of free labor. (2) The enactment 
by Congress of a bill providing that all convict-made goods when 
transported into any State or Territory of the United States shall 
be subject to the operation of the laws of such State or Territory 
to the same extent and in the same manner as though such goods 
had been produced therein." Many of the states have enacted laws 
designed to restrain or restrict the competition between prison labor 
and free labor within the respective jurisdictions of such states. 
(See Convict Labor Systems.) 

Prison -Made Goods. See Prison Labor. 

Private Employment Bureaus. See Employment Bureaus. 

Private Enterprise. The present system of industrial pro- 
duction for the profit of private individuals; as opposed to the 
ownership or control of industry by the State, in the interest of society 
as a whole. 

Prize Systems. See Reward Systems. 

Probation System in Russian Industry. Under the Soviet 
labor code, before any person is permanently engaged he must under- 
go a probation period of one week ; in nationalized (State-conducted) 
establishments the probation period is two weeks for unskilled labor 
and one month for skilled labor. If any employee is rejected after 
probation he may appeal to his trade union. If his union considers 
his complaint justified it may enter into negotiations with his em- 
ployer. Should negotiations fail, the m.atter may be submitted to 
the local office of the People's Commissariat of Labor, which may 
order the appointment of the complainant to a permanent position 
or may dismiss his complaint. 
26 [ 389 ] 



Probi-Viri. Italian industrial courts established by law to 
deal with cases (mainly wage disputes between individuals) arising 
out of existing labor contracts. They correspond to the French Con- 
SEiLS DE Prud'hommes and the German Gewerbegerichten. 

Process Work. In England, a common designation for factory 
work which involves a series of specialized mechanical processes or 
operations. 

Producers' Cooperation. As distinguished from consumers' 
COOPERATION, this is the plan whereby factories, farms, dairies, etc., 
are established or acquired by the workers themselves, for their 
common profit and benefit, the capitalist and employer in the ordi- 
nary sense being eliminated. The essential featiu-es underlying the 
various forms of producers' cooperation have been thus summarized : 
"(i) Each group of workers is to be associated by their own free 
choice; (2) these associates shall work under a leader elected and 
removable by themselves; and (3) the collective remuneration of 
the labor performed by the group shall be divided among all its 
members (including this leader) in such a manner as shall be arranged 
upon principles recognized as equitable, by the associates themselves." 
It is of course essential, under producers' cooperation, that the share 
capital of the enterprise shall be owned by the workers. As a general 
rule, the profits, after payment of interest on capital, are returned 
to the workers as a dividend on wages and to customers (who are 
largely the distributive societies) as a dividend on purchases. There 
are now 30,000 societies throughout the world engaged in this form 
of cooperation. They are generally known as ''productive societies" 
or "copartnership societies." Producers' cooperation itself is some- 
times called "industrial cooperation." The movement is strongest in 
Great Britain. (See Self-Employment; Cooperative Employment.) 

Product Sharing. A name sometimes given to the method or 
plan under which workers are recom.pensed, not in wages, but with 
a certain share or proportion of the product of their labor. Product 
sharing is now mainly confined to the field of agricultural labor. 
(See Cropper.) 

Production Manager. A technical engineer employed in 
large-scale industrial operations to keep the processes of production 
up to a point of maximimi efficiency. He differs from his less special- 
ized forerunner, the entrepreneur, in that he is not concerned 
primarily with the maintenance of prices or profits. Sometimes 
called "efficiency engineer." (See Job Analysis.) 

[390] 



Production Standards. In some industries or industrial 
establishments certain definite standards, sometimes calculated with 
the assistance of the trade union, are adopted to determine the normal 
output of workers on given processes. Such standards are used as a 
basis for fixing the wage in time work. One of the recent demands 
of the New York Clothing Manufacturers' Association upon the 
Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America was as follows: "All 
workers shall individually be responsible for a daily standard of 
production to be agreed on and calculated upon the base rates pre- 
vailing in other competitive markets; and that in the event of the 
failure of any worker to produce such standard of production, the 
employer shall have the right to reduce wages pro rata or discharge 
the worker substantially under-producing." Unless determined by 
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING, the enforcement of production standards 
usually results in task work. (See Labor Norm ; Fair Day's Work.) 

Productive Societies. See Producers' Cooperation. 

Productivism. The theory that social advance is dependent 
chiefly upon increased industrial output, rather than upon a more 
equitable distribution of the existing supply. In continental labor 
circles this term denotes the belief that labor groups must concen- 
trate upon a mastery of industrial processes, to the end that a labor 
or socialist regime shall produce a greater amount of wealth than does 
capitalism at present. 

Productivity Theory of Wages. The breakdown of the wage 
FUND THEORY has forccd economists to fall back upon a conception 
of general wages which is commonly known as the *' productivity 
theory." At the base of this doctrine is the fact (noted in the entry 
on Wages) that high wages do not necessarily mean high labor cost. 
"A worker who is efficient at his work will get high wages, because 
the product of. his work will be great; anything that increases the 
efficiency of the worker will, by making him more productive, tend 
to increase his wages." Thus, competition secures for the worker, 
in the form of wages, just what he produces. In Professor Hadley's 
phrase, wages are **the discounted product of industry," ie., the 
value of the product less interest on the v/ages from the time they 
are paid to the time when the employer receives the price of the prod- 
uct. Professor Clark suimmarizes the productivity theory as follows : 
"As real as gravitation is the force that draws the actual pay of men 
toward a standard that is set by the final productivity law. Tl-is 
law is universal and permanent : ever3rwhere it will outlive the local 

[391] 



and changeful influences that modify its operation. We are to get 
what we produce — such is the dominant rule of life; and what we 
are able to produce by means of labor, is determined by what a final 
unit of mere labor can add to the product that can be created without 
its aid. Final productivity governs wages." One of the several 
elaborations of this general theory is commonly known as "economic 
worth" — this phrase being, according to Professor Clay, "merely a 
misleading synonym for 'productivity of market value.'" (See 
Exchange Theory of Wages.) 

Professional Alliances. See Trade Unions in Russia. 

Professional Risk. See Trade Risk Principle. 

Professorial Socialism. See Socialists of the Chair. 

Profit Sharing. This term was defined by the International 
Cooperative Congress, held in Paris in 1889, as "an agreement 
freely entered into by which the employees receive a share, fixed in 
advance, of the profits." The same congress defined the term "agree- 
ment" as covering "not only agreements binding in law, but as in- 
cluding also cases where the agreement is only a moral obligation, 
provided it is honorably carried out." The term "profit" is defined 
as "the actual net balance or gain realized by the operations of the 
undertaking." A "share" is stated to be "a sum paid to the employee 
out of the profits." The share given to the employee "shall not be 
indeterminate"; that is, "it must not be a share which an employer 
fixes, at the end of some period, at his absolute discretion, as distin- 
guished from a prearranged basis." The production of the total 
working force of a concern that must share in the profits in order to 
establish real profit-sharing conditions was stated to be "not less than 
75 per cent." The three methods of profit sharing most commonly 
followed are: (i) Cash payments, at the end of a fixed period; (2) 
deferred participation by means of a savings bank deposit, bene- 
fit funds, or annuity; and (3) payment in shares of stock of the em- 
ploying corporation. Within these three forms, however, there are 
almost innumerable differences of detailed application in different 
establishments. Profit sharing, in the genuine sense, must be clearly 
distinguished from all schemes under which individual or collective 
bonuses are paid for increased production or lower production costs, 
irrespective of the rate of profit realized by the employer and also 
from all so-called "profit sharing" plans the benefits of which are 
confined to a selected few of the better-paid executive or supervisory 
employees. Trade unionists are, in the main, distinctly hostile to 

[392] 



all forms of profit sharing. As Professor W. J. Ashley has said, 
"profit-sharing and Trade Unionism rest on two mutually exclusive 
principles and involve two incompatible policies. Profit-sharing 
assimies a community of interest between employer and employed 
in each particular business, Trade Unionism between all the workmen 
in the trade against all the employers in the trade." It is a not 
uncommon practice among employers to make non-membership in 
a trade union a condition of employees' participation in profit 
sharing schemes. (See Gain Sharing; Capital Sharing; Indus- 
trial Partnership; Labor Copartnership; Cooperation.) 

Profits System. A name often given to the present economic 
organization of society, which has for its primary end the securing 
of monetary gain for the private owners of the means of production 
and distribution. The principal aim of socialism is to abolish the 
profits system, and to make public service rather than private 
profit the chief incentive in the economic arrangements of society. 
(See Capitalism; Absentee Capitalism; Exploitation; Wage 
Slavery; Competitive System.) 

Progression within the Trade. See Restriction of Num- 
bers; Seniority. 

Progressive Wage. See Premium Bonus System. 

Prohibited Employments. Those which are forbidden by 
law to women or children or, usually under certain individual dis- 
tinctions, to men. The purpose of such prohibition is to safeguard 
life, limb, health, or morals, and it is based on considerations of age, 
sex, physique, and education. In European countries, as a rule, the 
list of legally prohibited employments is much more inclusive than 
in the United States. 

Proletarian. See Proletariat. 

Proletariat or Proletariate. Derived from the Latin word 
proles, meaning "offspring" or "progeny," this word in its original 
Latin form denoted the lowest or poorest class of citizens — according 
to some authorities, those who served the State not with property 
but with offspring. In present-day usage, the term is used in desig- 
nation of the propertyless wage-earning class as a whole — those who 
are solely dependent upon daily employment, who do not own the 
tools or materials with which they work, and who have no security 
against the future. A single member of the proletariat is a "prole- 
tarian," which is also the adjective form. (See Scientific Socialism ; 

[393 ] 



Salariat; Intellectual Proletariat; Propertariat ; Bour- 
geoisie; Middle Class; Class Struggle; Dictatorship of the 
Proletariat; Communist Manifesto; Concentration of Capital 
Theory.) 

Propertariat. A term sometimes used, as an antithesis to 
proletariat, to designate the affluent or propertied classes of a 
community. (See Bourgeoisie.) 

Protective Chairman. See Shop Chairman. 

Protective Fund. See Strike Fund. 

Protocol. After a severe strike in the cloak, suit, and skirt 
industry of New York City in 1910, a so-called "protocol" or treaty 
of peace was m.ade between the Cloak, Suit, and Skirt Manufacturers' 
Protective Association, on the one hand, and various local unions of 
the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, acting with 
the advice and assistance of the national officers, on the other. 
This arrangement provided for various matters in controversy, as 
well as for a minimum wage scale, a fifty-hour working week, a joint 
board of sanitary control, the preferential shop, and a plan for 
adjusting future disputes by means of a Board of Grievances and a 
Board of Arbitration, with equal representation in each case for both 
manufacturers and emplo3^ees. Both sides bound themselves to 
accept the awards of these boards. The Board of Grievances was 
composed at first of four members, later increased to ten, an equal 
nimiber from each side. In cases of deadlock the dispute was to be 
referred to a Board of Arbitration, consisting of three members, one 
representing each party and one — the impartial chairman — 
chosen by the other two or, in case of their failure to agree, by the 
governor of the state. After some experimenting, the following pro- 
cedure was established: Any individual having cause for dissatis- 
faction might appeal to the Board of Grievances. A clerk of this 
Board first took up the matter, and adjusted it, if possible, in accord- 
ance with established procedure. If this failed the mxatter was con- 
sidered by the Board of Grievances. In case there was a tie vote or 
no decision reached, the matter went to the Board of Arbitration 
and its decision was final, as both parties to the protoco: were bound 
by it. In practical operation the protocol was for a time very suc- 
cessful, and its essential features were widely copied in other trade 
agreements. But in 19 15 new difficulties arose, and the protocol 
was superseded by a new agreement on somewhat different lines. 

[394] 



Provident Benefits. This term is used in Great Britain in 
general designation of any payment made by a trade union to a mem- 
ber during any sickness or incapacity or while out of work, or to an 
aged member, or to a member who has met with an accident or lost 
his tools by fire or theft, or to a member in discharge of funeral 
expenses, or to the children of a deceased member. 

Provisional Members. See Members at Large. 

Provocateur. See Agent Provocateur. 

Public Account System of Convict Labor. Under this 
system penal or reformatory institutions carry on the business of 
manufacturing, or other industries, like private individuals or firms, 
buying raw materials and converting them into manufactured prod- 
ucts, or producing agricultural crops, which are sold in the best 
available market, the entire proceeds and profits accruing to the 
State, its political subdivisions or institutions. (See Convict 
Labor Systems; Prison Labor; Regie.) 

Public Employment Bureaus. See Employment Bureaus. 

Public Ownership. See Nationalization. 

Public Works and Ways System of Convict Labor. Under 
this system the labor of convicts is utilized in the construction or 
repair of public roads, bridges, buildings, and other public improve- 
ments. (See Convict Labor Systems; Prison Labor.) 

Pullman Strike. See Debs Case. 

Punitive Overtime. See Overtime. 

Pure and Simple Unionism. Craft unionism, particularly 
of the functional type known as business unionism, is often so 
called. The phrase is said to have been first used by Samuel Gompers, 
in designation of the form of trade unionism prevailing within the 
American Federation of Labor. It was quickly taken up by the 
I. W. W. and other revolutionary unionists, and applied in a derisive 
sense— as for example in dubbing the A. F. of L. "pure and simple- 
dom," or in referring to craft unionists as "pure and simples," *'pure 
and simplers," etc. 

Pushers. See Speeding Up. 



R 



Radical, Radicalism. From the Latin radix, meaning "root"; 
hence * ' pertaining to the root or foundation of the subject ; concerned 
with or based upon fundamental principles; thoroughgoing, extreme." 
In any sane and accurate sense a radical, whether within or without 
the labor movement, is simply one who believes in political, social, 
or economic reforms that strike at the root of an evil rather than at 
its surface aspects ; while radicalism is the general attitude or philoso- 
phy based on such a belief. The common tendency, so sedulously 
fostered by reactionary public officials in every country, to associate 
the terms "radical "and "radicalism" exclusively with ideas of work- 
ing-class violence and lawlessness, regardless of the actual meaning 
of the terms, is no less absurd and unwarranted than would be a 
similar tendency to associate "conservative" and "conservatism" 
exclusively with ideas of capitalistic or governmental violence and 
lawlessness. (See Intransigents; Left.) 

Raiffeisen Banks. As initiated by Friedrich Raiffeisen of 
Germany in 1849, these institutions now represent one of the two 
main types of credit unions which flourish in all European countries. 
Under the Raiffeisen plan, the people of a small area borrow money 
on their joint responsibility, and loan it out among themselves for 
certain specified purposes (usually agricultural improvements) at 
a slightly higher rate of interest than is paid on the collective loan. 
The banks do not work for profit, and are conducted by unpaid 
directors. (See Credit Cooperation; Schulze-Delitzsch Banks.) 

Railroad Boards of Labor Adjustment. During the period 
of Federal control of the railways, arrangements were made for the 
establishment of "railroad boards of labor adjustment" to deal with 
such minor controversies growing out of the interpretation or appli- 
cation of agreements as were not promptly adjusted by the officials 
and the employees on any of the railroads under Federal control. 
Three such boards were established during 19 18 by former Director- 
General McAdoo, consisting on the one hand of representatives of 

[396] 



the railway managements and on the other of representatives of the 
**big four" RAILWAY BROTHERHOODS (Board No. i), the shop workers 
(Board No. 2), and the maintenance-of-way men, telegraphers, 
switchmen, and clerks (Board No. 3). The Federal Transportation 
Act allowed for the continuance of these boards, as a part of the 
machinery for conciliation and arbitration in the railway industry. 
They were, however, dissolved by Director-General Payne in Dec- 
ember, 1920. (See Railroad Labor Board.) 

Railroad Bull. See Bull System. 

Railroad Labor Board. As created by the Federal Transpor- 
tation Act of 1920, this is a permanent salaried body of nine members, 
including three representatives of the railroad managements, three 
of railway employees, and three of "the public." The Board is em- 
powered to hear and decide disputes involving wages, grievances, 
rules, or working conditions, which have failed of settlement by a 
Railroad Board of Labor Adjustment or by mutual agreement 
between the contending parties. It may, on petition of either 
party to a dispute, or on its own motion in serious cases, fix "just 
and reasonable" rates of wages and standards of working conditions, 
the same to be made a matter of record and to be published. De- 
cisions of the Board require the concurrence of at least five of the nine 
members; and in cases of decisions regarding wages or salaries, at 
least one of the representatives of the public must concur in the 
decision. Broad powers are vested in the Board with respect to com- 
pelling the attendance of witnesses, the production of books and 
doctunents, etc., but no penalty is specifically provided for the vio- 
lation of its decisions. The Board is required to maintain permanent 
central headquarters in Chicago. (See National Agreements 
in the Railway Industry.) 

Railway Boycott. As commonly understood, this consists in 
the refusal of railway employees to handle certain classes of cars — 
as for example, those coming from a railway on which there is a 
strike. This form of boycott is peculiar in its character, inasmuch 
as it involves usually only concerted action by the workingmen 
themselves, without attempt to influence the public to refuse patron- 
age. Again, the boycott is effected often by means of a strike, by 
quitting employment, in order to avoid handling cars. On the other 
hand, a railway boycott conducted in this way is even more effective 
than one which consists merely in refusal of patronage. If the cars 
of a railway company can not be hauled at all, because of the refusal 

[397] 



of the employees, the willingness of the public to patronize the rail- 
road is a matter of no significance. (See Mandatory Injunction.) 

Railway Brotherhoods. There are sixteen "recognized" 
national or international organizations of railway workers in the 
United States; and of these, eleven use the word "brotherhood" 
in their titles. The organizations of a majority of the so-called 
"shop workers" (machinists, etc.) and of the clerks, freight- 
handlers, switchmen, etc., are affiliated with the American Feder- 
ation OF Labor and with the Railway Employees' Department 
of the Federation. The term "railway brotherhoods," however, 
is most commonly used in designation of the four principal organiza- 
tions of railway workers — the Grand International Brotherhood of 
Locomotive Engineers (originally the "Brotherhood of the Foot- 
board"), the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemxn, 
the Order of Railway Conductors, and the Brotherhood of Railroad 
Trainmen (originally the Brotherhood of Railroad Brakemen), 
known popularly as the "Big Foiur" and having a combined member- 
ship of about half a million. These organizations came into existence 
as benevolent associations formed by the workers to protect them- 
selves and their families, because of the difficulty of securing insur- 
ance in the regular insurance companies on account of the special 
hazards of their work. This insurance feature has developed into 
an immense business, and most of the brotherhoods have accumu- 
lated huge funds. The insurance or benefit departments are usually 
separately organized, although membership in such a department is 
compulsory for all members of the brotherhood. The structure and 
administrative machinery of the brotherhoods are too elaborate, 
and differ too widely in detail among the various organizations, 
to permit of intelligible summary here. In the matter of organization, 
nomenclature, and ritual, several of them still retain the character 
of fraternal orders. A joint body, representative of the sixteen 
unions and known as the "Associated Standard Recognized Rail- 
road Labor Organizations," has been formed for dealing with ques- 
tions of national scope. The "Big Four" also cooperate in joint 
action of various sorts — as for example, in a "Joint National Legis- 
lative Board," maintained for "utilizing the combined influence" 
and "insiuing harmonious action" in the matter of public legislation. 
Composed as they are of skilled and relatively well-paid wage-earners 
employed by quasi-public corporations, and working under definite 
and standardized scales of wages, the "Big Four" brotherhoods 
represent the conservative aristocracy of the labor world, and their 

[398] 



members have been for the most part little troubled by the dangers 
and difficulties that confront other classes of wage-earners. (Sea 
Joint Conference System in the Railway Industry; Brother- 
hood Cooperations; Cedar Rapids Plan; System Federations; 
Business Unionism; Color Line in Trade Unionism.) 

Railway Cooperations. See Brotherhood Cooperations. 

Railway Employees' Department of the American Feder- 
ation of Labor. Organized 1908, and consisting of such national, 
international, and brotherhood organizations of railway workers as 
are affiliated with and chartered by the A. F. of L. The Department 
consists of two sections: (i) Mechanical, comprising the organiza- 
tions of machinists, blacksmiths, boilermakers, railway carmen, 
sheet metal workers, and electrical workers — the so-called "shop 
crafts"; and (2) Transportation, consisting of railway and steam- 
ship clerks, freight handlers, express and station employees, and 
switchmen. Each section has complete autonomy and jurisdiction 
over its membership, subject to the laws of the Department. The 
jurisdiction of the Department is separated into five "divisions," 
four of which comprise the various railway systems lying within 
different specified geographical areas, while the fifth comprises all 
locomotive and car equipment plants in the United States and 
Canada. Each division, through its "Federated Board," makes 
separate agreements as to wages, working conditions, etc., with the 
railway managers of the same division — subject to the laws of the 
Department. Strikes upon any division may not be ordered without 
the Department's approval. (See Departments of the American 
Federation of Labor; System Federations.) 

Railway Relief Departments. See Establishment Fund. 

Railway Schools. As found in most European countries and 
less commonly in the United States, these are special establishments 
for the technical education of young persons preparing to enter some 
particular branch of railway work. They are conducted either by 
individual railway companies or (occasionally) by the government. 

Rand School of Social Science. An institution for working- 
class education along the lines of Marxian socialism, established 
in New York City in 1906, under an endowment made by the late 
Mrs. Carrie A. Rand. The school;^ owned and controlled by a 
membership corporation, the American Socialist Society, and its 
primary function is that of "offering the general public facilities for 

[399] 



the study of socialism and related subjects, and giving socialists 
instruction and training calculated to make them efficient workers 
for the socialist and labor movement." The courses of instruction 
include the training course, courses for general classes, and various 
correspondence courses. A summer school started as an experiment 
in 19 1 8 has become a permanent activity of the school. The depart- 
ment of research has conducted investigations into labor conditions, 
has published pamphlets on various subjects, and brings out annually 
the ** American Labor Year Book." A large collection of reference 
material and adequate library equipment afford facilities for study 
and research work along economic and socialistic lines. Social and 
cultural features are furnished through an athletic association, a 
students' league, a society for music and drama, and an orchestra. 
The school also maintains a bookstore. 

Rank and File Movement. A phrase often used in designa- 
tion of the increasing tendency among trade unionists to break 
away from the centralized control of their national officers. It is 
exemplified, in one phase, by the shop steward movement in Eng- 
land; and, on another side, by the numerous ** outlaw" or inde- 
pendent STRIKES of the past two or three years in the United States. 

Rat. In the printing trade, an epithet often applied by union- 
ists to a non-union worker, or to one who accepts lower wages than 
those current at the time and place or required by an authorized 
scale, or who takes the place of a worker on strike or refuses to join 
in an authorized strike. The doing of any of these things is called 
* ' ratting ' ' ; one who has done them is said to have * ' ratted. ' * Among 
printers the term **rat" usually carries the same implications of dis- 
honor or disloyalty that attach to scab and blackleg in other 
crafts. A non-union printing office is known among unionists as a 
"rat hole" or "rat shop." 

Rat Shop or Rat Hole. See Rat. 

Rate and a Half. See Time and a Half. 

Rate Cutting. See Price Cutting. 

Rate Fixer. See Time Study. 

Rating Scale. An American army system for testing the 
capacity and fitness of officers for promotion, which is now being 
adopted to some extent in the selection of foremen, etc., in industry. 
It ggnsists, roughly, in the comparison of certain specified qualities 

[400] 



in the person to be rated with similar qualities in several other per- 
sons occupying the class of position to which promotion is being con- 
sidered, and reducing the comparison to a numerical expression. 
The term "rating scale" is also sometimes applied to a scale of wages 
under the grading system, the workers being rated or graded ac- 
cording to individual ability. 

Rattening. In England, the secret damaging or abstracting 
of a worker's tools, clothes, or other property,— often for failure to 
observe trade union rules or to keep up the payment of union dues. 
The loss is sometimes ironically attributed to rats — hence the 
derivation of the term. "Rattening" is one of the early forms of 
SABOTAGE — ^though directed against fellow-laborers rather than 
employers. (See Trade Disputes Act.) 

Ratting. See Rat. 

Reactionary. One who, whether within or without the labor 
movement, holds stubbornly and persistently to ideas and methods 
of the past, who opposes economic, social, and political innovations, 
and usually favors coercive measures against the innovators; an ex- 
treme conservative. The terms "tory," "standpatter," and 
"bourbon" usually carry much the same connotations. 

Real Wages. See Wages. 

Recognition. In labor affairs, this term generally denotes 
the formal acknowledgment and acceptance, on the part of an em- 
ployer or a group of employers, of the right of a particular trade 
union to negotiate for and otherwise act in regard to the interests of 
its individual members. ' ' The first step in the strategy of collecti ve 
bargaining is recognition of the union, that is, recognition by the 
employer of the representatives of the union by consenting to confer 
with them. How important this preliminary step is considered by 
both sides is shown by the meaning which they give to the term 
'recognition.' To 'recognize a union* is considered to be not merely 
to hold a conference with its agents, but also to investigate grievances 
and demands, to negotiate concerning the terms of a collective agree- 
ment, and even to employ union men on terms consented to by the 
union. Strictly speaking, these are not 'recognition,' but are steps 
in collective bargaining that follow recognition. Recognition in the 
ordinary use of the term (the one here used) would be merely a con- 
ference in which the employer meets certain individuals, not as in- 
dividuals but as recognized agents of the union authorized to speak 

[ 401 ] 



on behalf of his employees. But it is so well understood that recog- 
nition, even in this limited sense, will be followed by other steps, 
that the decisive battle is often fought out at this point." In another 
sense, the term "recognition" often denotes the acknowledgment 
and acceptance, on the part of individual unionists or groups of 
unionists, of the authority and jurisdiction over their actions of a 
particular trade union or group of unions. Recognition, in either of 
the above-described senses, may be called the corner-stone of trade 
unionism; as without it, both collective bargaining and efficient 
organization are impossible. 

Recruiting Unions. See Federal Labor Union; Mixed Local. 

Red. As S3Tiibolic of the common life-blood of humanity, red 
has always been the official color of the socialist and communist 
movements in all countries. In common current usage, anything 
socialistic or revolutionary, more specifically anything associated 
with present-day Russia, is characterized as "red" — ^for example, 
"red terror," "red army," "red Internationale," etc.; while anyone 
holding radical social views is commonly dubbed a "red." The 
legitimate and the propaganda uses of the word should of course be 
carefully differentiated. (See Red Union.) 

Red Internationale. See Internationale ; Communist Inter- 
nationale. 

Red Necks. A term of contempt sometimes applied to strikers 
and their sympathizers. It seems to have come into use during the 
Colorado coal strike of 19 14. 

Red Trade Union Internationale. See International 
Council of Trade and Industrial Unions. 

Red Union. In the European labor movement, particularly 
in France, this term is commonly applied to those labor organizations 
that are devoted to revolutionary policies and ends — as distinguished 
from the conservative or yellow unions. (See Syndicat; French 
Labor Movement.) 

Referendum. See Initiative and Referendum. 

Reformist. In the European labor movement, this teim is 
used in designation of conservative socialistic policies, methods, 
parties, individuals, etc. In general, it denotes the opposite of 
"revolutionary." (See Right.) 

[ 402 ] 



Regie. The name given to a system of convict labor adopted 
in some parts of Germany. It corresponds in general to what is known 
in America as the public account system. 

Regional Economic Councils. Russian bodies, ten in num- 
ber, consisting of delegates from all the works committees, local 
trade unions, and local Soviets in all the industries of a specific 
region. They help in the adjustment of labor disputes, appoint 
managers in the nationalized factories and other industrial plants, 
and perform various other functions. Each regional economic 
council has two representatives in the Supreme Council of Public 
Economy. 

Registry System. As commonly used among trade unionists, 
this term refers to the plan under which union members losing their 
employment must immediately, and daily while they are out of work, 
sign their names in a book provided for that purpose by the local 
union. This book (called the ** vacant book" in many unions and 
the "waiting list" in others) serves not only to facilitate the finding 
of situations for unemployed members, but also as a receipt for out- 
OF-WORK BENEFITS paid to members. 

Regular Unionism or Regular Labor. In America, that part 
of the organized labor movement which is represented by the Ameri- 
can Federation of Labor; as distinguished from political labor 
parties, secessionists, outlaws, and such radical labor bodies as 
the International Workers of the World. 

Regularization of Industry. As a measure in relief of 
unemployment, this denotes the combined effort of employers, 
employees, and the consuming public to make every industrial job 
a steady job by equalizing and stabilizing in every way possible the 
various factors under their separate control. By way of specific 
example, employers might spread production evenly throughout the 
year, instead of producing at "peak" capacity for a few months and 
then shutting down to await another accumulation of orders. The 
workers might, on their part, waive certain trade union rules of a 
selfishly exclusive nature; while the consumers might endeavor to 
substitute a continuous demand for the present seasonal and sporadic 
demands that prevail in many industries. 

Rehabilitation. See Vocational Rehabilitation. 

Reichsarbeiterrat (National Workers* Council). See German 
Works Councils Law. 

[403I 



Relchskohlenrat (National Coal Council). Under a law enacted 
in March, 19 19, to "regulate the coal industry," the German Na- 
tional Assembly placed the entire coal industry of the country under 
a council composed of representatives of trade unions, employers' 
associations, cooperative societies, etc. This council controls the 
prices and distribution of coal. Similar councils have been set up 
for some of the other principal national industries. They are con- 
sidered an intermediary step toward complete nationalization of 
industry in Germany. 

Reichswirtschaftsrat (National Economic Council). In ad- 
dition to, or in a considerable degree as a part of, the system of 
WORKS COUNCILS described in the entry German Works Councils 
Law, the constitution of the new German Republic makes provision 
for a system of economic councils, consisting of employers' and 
workers' representatives, with additional delegates from other sec- 
tions of the public. Two forms of such councils were proposed: 
(i) A district council, or Bezirkswirtschaftsrat, for each economic area, 
consisting of the district works council for the corresponding economic 
area, with employers' and other representatives; and (2) a national 
council, or Reichswirtschaftsrat, consisting of the national works 
council, with employers' and other representatives. Owing to various 
difficulties, the district economic councils have not yet been estab- 
lished; but the national body was created on a provisional basis 
(Vorhereitender Reichswirtschaftsrat) by decree of May 4, 1920. In 
addition to initiating and approving political measures of a social 
and economic nature, one of the most important duties of this pro- 
visional body is to establish the legal foundation upon which to 
erect the district works and economic councils and the permanent 
national economic council. When thus permanently established, the 
Reichswirtschaftsrat, as an economic parliament sitting in regular 
sessions, will pass on all questions of either an economic or socio- 
political nature, approve all bills of such nature before their intro- 
duction in the National Assembly, and initiate and defend original 
bills. 

Relative Wages. See Wages. 

Relief Funds. See Establishment Fund. 

Relief Towns. See Travelling Card. 

Relief Workers. See Shift System; Grass Work; On-and- 
Off System; Bye-Turnman; Sick Worker; Utility Man. 

[404] 



Remuneration of Labor in Russia. Under the Soviet labor 
code, the remuneration of wage earners, and the conditions and 
manner of payment, are fixed by the trade unions, in agreement with 
the directors or owners of the various industries, and approved by 
the People's Commissariat of Labor. The workers in each indus- 
try are classified by groups or categories, as a basis for the scale of 
wages in that industry. In determining the amount of remuneration 
for each group or category, the following factors are taken into 
consideration: Kind of labor; the danger, complexity, and accuracy 
involved; the degree of independence, responsibility, education, and 
experience required. In every case the standard pay must be at 
least sufficient to provide for minimum living expenses in the worker's 
district. The scale of wages is for both the normal working day and 
PIECE work; an increased rate for overtime is stipulated. Wages 
may be paid "in kind" — in lodging, food supplies or other articles. 
This, however, requires the special permission of the local depart- 
ment of labor. Sick or unemployed workers are given their regular 
pay. Bonuses are paid for the rapid execution of certain kinds of 
work. Two decrees issued in 191 8 stipulate that "working women 
who execute the same work in quality and quantity as men receive 
the same salary as the latter." Professional workers are classified 
in groups or categories, similar to those of manual workers, and a 
rate of remuneration is fixed for each group. Teachers are placed in 
the group receiving the highest rate of remuneration. Workers re- 
ceive full pay during a two weeks' leave of absence every six months, 
but are not permitted to work for remuneration elsewhere during 
such leave. 

Rent of Ability. A term sometimes used by economists to 
denote a surplus of individual wages over the ordinary or average 
level, earned because of some exceptional talent, skill, or endowment 
of the worker. 

Rent of Opportunity. Economists sometimes use this term 
in designation of a surplus of individual wages over the ordinary 
or average level, earned because of some legal monopoly or exclusive 
concession in the industry which employs the worker, because of a 
sudden rush of demand for a new product or a sudden cheapening of 
production, or because of various other similar reasons. 

Repetition Work. Those industrial operations in which the 
same specialized task or performance is indefinitely repeated by the 
same worker. This class of work is common in all highly standardized 

[ 405 ] 



manufacturing industries, and is usually paid for on a piece work 
basis. 

Replacement. See Mobility of Labor. 

Representative Assembly. See National Convention. 

Representative Bargaining. It is a fixed trade union prin- 
ciple that collective bargaining should be conducted on the 
workers' side by skilled specialists — ^men who know all the conditions 
of the trade and the market — rather than by the men in actual em- 
ploy. ''Considered merely as a bargainer, as an actual participant 
in the operations of the market, the workman is almost always under 
grave disadvantages as compared with the employer. Except the 
trifling higgling which he may do in the purchase of his small neces- 
sities, he is accustomed to bargain only in the sale of his labor, and 
the bargains which determine that sale are likely to be made at some- 
what long intervals. Every employer, small or great, of necessity 
devotes a considerable share of his attention to bargains of purchase 
and of sale. If the labor bargain is made with a foreman, the fore- 
man is continually engaged in such bargaining, and develops in it a 
very special skill. Both the foreman and the employer have also, in 
most cases, a higher degree of general intelligence and mental activity 
than the workingman with whom they deal. ... If the whole body of 
workers of a given kind can be brought into the union, so that the 
union can meet the employers as the representative of the whole, the 
position of the worker will be greatly strengthened. There will still 
remain the absolute perishability of his commodity — the need of 
selling his labor today under penalty of the total loss of today's por- 
tion. But he will be freed, by the support of his fellows and of the 
union funds, from the necessity of accepting whatever is offered, on 
pain of beggary. The fear that if he refuses to accept certain terms 
his neighbor will accept them will also be removed. His ignorance of 
market conditions will be partly remedied, both through the com- 
bination of the knowledge of all the members of the union, and, in 
some cases, by the broader outlook which the union officials, wholly 
or partly exempted from daily application to manual work, may be 
able to obtain. The whole matter of bargaining can be put into the 
hands of the most skillful ; and the officers and leaders may develop 
a skill in bargaining, by constant practice, comparable to that of 
their opponents." These are the facts which account for trade union 
emphasis on the principle of representative bargaining — that is to 
say, collective bargaining conducted by expert "outside" repre- 

[406] 



sentatives of the workers. (See Individual Bargaining; Trade 
Union.) 

Representative Meeting. The constitution of practically 
every large British trade union makes provision for the assembling 
at least once a year of a "representative meeting" or national con- 
ference, as a means of ascertaining the real will of the membership 
on matters of general policy. It is also commonly provided that the 
rules of the union shall not be changed except with the consent of a 
*' delegate meeting" consisting of delegates from the various districts 
or branches who as a rule vote according to definite instructions. 
There are still certain unions which endeavor to insure that wide 
questions of national policy shall be decided by the whole member- 
ship by means of a referendum, but this method of framing policy is 
gradually being narrowed in practice, and has been largely rendered 
obsolete by the increased efficiency of representative government. 
The representative meeting or national conference is often called a 
"parHament" or "congress." (See Cotton Spinners' Parliament; 
British Trade Union Organization.) 

Representatives. See Under-Cover Men. 

Reserve of Labor. In connection with any given trade or 
industry, the reserve of labor means simply the workers who within 
any given period are liable to be called on sometimes but are not 
employed continuously. " In the total reserve of labor for any occu- 
pation it is possible to distinguish three elements. There is first the 
body of men representing the fluctuations in the volume of work to 
be done at all centres of emplo5rment taken together. These men are 
required by the conditions of the trade as a whole. There is, second, 
the body of men required by the fact that, owing to distance, igno- 
rance, or custom, the supply of labor cannot move with perfect free- 
dom and instantaneously from any one centre of employment to any 
other, and that therefore separate centres, to meet their fluctuations 
of work, must to some extent keep separate reserves. These men 
represent the friction of the labor market. There is, third, the body 
of men required neither by the fluctuations in the total volume of 
work nor by the fluctuations of separate business, but liable to be 
attracted and retained by the perpetual chance of work." (See 
Casual Labor; Fringe of Unemployed; Under-Employment; 
Royals.) 

Resistance Fund. See Strike Fund. 

[ 407 ] 



Rest -Day Laws. See One Day's Rest in Seven. 

Rest Periods. Brief intervals of relaxation or recreation 
allowed employees during working hours. In some cases these periods 
are of such short duration that the interval of relaxation must be 
spent at desk or machine. But in some establishments sufficient 
time is allowed to enable the workers to make use of special rest 
rooms, to engage in systematic exercise, or to eat a light lunch. Such 
periods of complete relaxation and change from the strain of mo- 
notonous and tiresome occupations have usually proved of great 
advantage to both employees and employers. (See Snap Time.) 

Restoration of Prewar Practices Act. See Industrial 
Truce. 

Restriction of Numbers. A term used by Mr. and Mrs. 
Webb in designation of one of the two principal devices or methods 
by which trade unionism seeks to maintain and improve the condi- 
tions of employment. It refers specifically to the various trade 
union regulations and restrictions regarding (i) entrance into a 
trade and (2) admittance to the trade union. In the first-named 
class are the various rules relating to apprenticeship; those in regu- 
lation of what is called ** progression within the trade," or the steps 
by which an adult worker is advanced or promoted from one occupa- 
tion to another; and those regarding the exclusion of women or chil- 
dren. In the second-named class, that which has to do with admit- 
tance to the trade union, belong such rules as those requiring that an 
applicant for membership shall have served for a certain time at his 
trade; that he be a "practical" or ''competent" worker; that he be 
"of good moral character"; etc. In some of the more highly skilled 
trades, the applicant must pass an examination. Most unions ex- 
clude foremen and small employers. The principal railway brother- 
hoods have long denied admission to negroes, and to workers directly 
interested in the liquor business. Some unions either exc ude foreign 
workers altogether, or discriminate against them by excessive initia- 
tion FEES. A few unions still exclude women. Finally may be men- 
tioned the type of restriction made possible by an exclusive agree- 
ment with an employers' association, where a union arbitrarily 
excludes competent and otherwise eligible workers in order to main- 
tain a monopoly for its existing membership. In general, the various 
rules in regard to "restriction of ntunbers" are based on the common 
trade union assumption that better conditions can be obtained by 
limiting the number of competitors. (See Common Rule; Color 

[408] 



Line in Trade Unionism; Exclusion Policy of Trade Unionism; 
Monopoly Policy of Trade Unionism; Permit System.) 

Retirement Allowances. See Old Age Insurance ; Benefits. 

Retiring Card. See Withdrawal Card. 

Revisionists. Those socialists who adhere to a revised form 
of scientific socialism, in which the more radical or revolutionary 
theories of Marx are either eliminated or decidedly toned down, are 
sometimes thus designated. (See Neo-Marxians.) 

Revolutionaries. See Left, Left Wing. 

Revolutionary General Strike. See Strike; General 
Strike. 

Revolutionary Labor Armies. The system of compulsory 
LABOR IN Russia assumes two main forms. One of these, which may 
be called the normal form, consists in the utilization of all the man- 
power in the country, both skilled and unskilled. This man-power is 
utilized through the process of registration, mobilization, and dis- 
tribution. The second, or temporary, form consists in the trans- 
formation of the active military forces into a ** labor army." In 
other words, the soldiers are kept with the colors, and are employed 
on what is called the "labor front" in repairing railway lines and 
rolling stock, in road and bridge building, wood-cutting, agricultural 
work, etc. By a decree signed on January 15, 1920, by Lenin, Presi- 
dent of the Soviet of Defense, the Third Red Army from the Ural 
front was converted as a unit into the First Revolutionary Labor 
Army, with Leon Trotzky as Commander-in-Chief. Several addi- 
tional labor armies have since been formed. 

Revolutionary Labor Movement. In common usage, this 
term is usually applied to those elements in organized labor that 
are working for a complete alteration in the existing social, political, 
and economic system — ^whether by the avenue of syndicalism, of 
communism, of One Big Union, of guild socialism, or of any other 
radical philosophy. The word ''revolutionary" in this connection 
properly refers solely to the end in view, and carries no legitimate 
connotations of violence or bloodshed in the means — ^although here, 
as in other sections or groupings of society, there are elements which 
advocate forcible methods in achieving the end in view. In a more 
general sense, as is emphasized in Frank Tannenbaum's ''The Labor 
Movement," all organized labor is revolutionary in fact if not in 

I 409 J 



thought. " It is not revolutionary because it wills to be; it is revolu- 
tionary because its activities are such without regard to the imme- 
diate object in hand. Organized labor is revolutionary because it is 
the organized embodiment of what must be described as a compre- 
hensive social transformation. ... A labor union is a new realignment 
of social forces in the community — a revolutionary, democratic, co- 
operative grouping of men and women around the tools and the 
industry with which they are concerned, and the grouping has only 
one purpose and one result — the constantly greater control of the 
machine, the industry, the tool which happens to be their particular 
means of life and labor. Revolutionary activity consists in the ab- 
sorption, the wresting of power and control by one group from 
another — and that is what every labor union does. It gains power 
from the employer." (See Revolutionary Unionism; Boring 
FROM Within.) 

Revolutionary Socialism. See Scientific Socialism. 

Revolutionary Unionism. The functional type of unionism 
which, according to Hoxie's "Trade Unionism in the United States," 
is "distinctly class-conscious rather than trade-conscious. That is 
to say, it asserts the complete harmony of interests of all wageworkers 
as against the representatives of the employing class, and seeks to 
unite the former, skilled and unskilled together, into one homogeneous 
fighting organization. It repudiates, or tends to repudiate, the exist- 
ing institutional order and especially individual ownership of pro- 
ductive means, and the wage system. It looks upon the prevailing 
modes of right and rights, moral and legal, as, in general, fabrications 
of the employing class, designed to secure the subjection and to 
f\u*ther the exploitation of the workers. In 'government it aspires 
to be democratic, striving to make literal application of the phrase 
vox poptdi, vox Dei. In method, it looks askance at collective 
bargaining and mutual insurance as m^aking for conservatism 
and hampering the free and united action of the workers." There 
are two main types of revolutionary unionism. One, the milder 
form, "finds its ultimate ideal in the socialistic State and its ultimate 
means in invoking class political action." The other and more 
radical form repudiates socialism, and looks forward to a society 
based wholly upon free industrial association; it finds its chosen 
weapons in the various forms of direct action, and its necessary 
mediimi in the industrial union. Its aim, as expressed by one of 
its prominent exponents, "is to build up an industrial republic inside 
the shell of the political State, in order that when that industrial 

[410] 



republic is fully organized it may crack the shell of the political State 
and step into its place in the scheme of the universe. . . The adminis- 
tration of affairs will be in the hands of representatives of the various 
industries of the nation; . . the workers in the shops and factories 
will organize themselves into unions, each union comprising all the 
workers at a given industry; . . said union will democratically control 
the workshop life of its own industry, electing all foremen, etc., and 
regulating the routine of labor in that industry in subordination to 
the needs of society in general, to the needs of its allied trades and to 
the department of industry to which it belongs. . . . Representatives 
elected from these various departments of industry will meet and 
form the industrial administration or national government of the 
country." This type, of which the I. W. W. is the chief American 
exponent, is sometimes known as "syndicalist unionism." (See New 
Unionism; Industrial Unionism; Syndicalism; One Big Union; 
Marxian Industrial Unionism.) 

Reward Systems or Prize Systems. A name sometimes given 
to the various methods of wage payment which make provision for 
bonuses or premivmis as an inducement to increased effort on the 
part of workers. (See Bonus System; Premium Bonus System; 
Efficiency Payments.) 

Right, Right Wing. Terms usually applied to that group or 
element in any organized movement or body which represents the 
most conservative opinion and policies. The members of this group 
areusually known as "moderates." (See Reformist; Opportunist.) 

Right to Strike. A slogan which represents one of the most 
fundamental claims of organized labor. Any interference with or 
denial of this right (such, for instance, as that set up by the Kansas 
Industrial Court and the Colorado Industrial Commission 
Law) constitutes, from the worker's point of view, an effort toward 
placing labor in a state of involuntary servitude. The right to 
strike is considered by labor a necessary check upon the arbitrary 
use of the employer's right to discharge. The report on railway 
labor prepared under the direction of the Federal Industrial Com- 
mission by Dr. Samuel McCune Lindsay declares that "it is the 
almost unanimous opinion of modern economists of various schools 
of thought that labor combinations with the power to appeal in the 
last resort to a strike or a joint refusal to work are, under the present 
system of competition, necessary and expedient. While most labor 
organizations realize that the strike is a costly and, in most cases, a 

[411] 



useless weapon with which to accomplish their purposes, the wisdom 
of maintaining the right to strike, as a last resort, can not be ques- 
tioned. It has been frequently affirmed in court decisions." (See 
Strikes in Russia.) 

Right to the Trade. In connection with overlap and 
jurisdiction, this phrase denotes the common trade union assump- 
tion expressed in the following statement of an English labor organ- 
ization : ** Considering that the trade by which we live is our property, 
bought by certain years of servitude, which gives to us a vested right, 
and that we have a sole and exclusive claim on it, as all will have 
hereafter who purchase it by the same means, . . it is evident it is our 
duty to protect, by all fair and legal means, the property by which 
we live, being always equally careful not to trespass on the rights of 
others." The phrase ''Right to a Trade" is used by Mr. and Mrs. 
Webb in designation of one of the seven classes of regulations which 
trade unionism seeks to enforce. (See Vested Interests Doc- 
trine.) 

Right to Work. Although the right to work was recognized 
by an i8th century law in Prussia which guaranteed State support 
for any able-bodied male unable to find employment, the first recog- 
nition of this principle on a broad national scale was made by the 
present Soviet government of Russia, whose labor laws declare that 
"all citizens able to work have the right to emplo3rnient at their 
vocations, and for remunerations fixed for such class of work." If no 
work can be found for any able-bodied person, he or she is entitled 
to a full wage or salary for the whole time of involuntary idleness. 
(See Compulsory Labor in Russia.) 

Rochdale Pioneers. See Rochdale Plan. 

Rochdale Plan. This term refers to the system or method 
of consumers' cooperation originated by the Rochdale Society of 
Equitable Pioneers (the members of which are now commonly known 
as the "Rochdale Pioneers" or "Equitable Pioneers") in Rochdale, 
Lancashire, England, in 1844; which is still the basis of most con- 
sumers' cooperative societies. Under this plan, to become a member 
of such a society at least one share of stock (commonly of about $5 
par value) must be purchased, but may usually be paid for in small 
installments. The maximum number of shares that can be held 
by one member is commonly fixed at two hundred. Each paid-up 
share bears interest, limited generally to five per cent, and its value 
never rises above par. In the general meetings of the society, each 

[412] 



member has one vote, irrespective of the nimiber of shares held, and 
is eHgible to a seat on the board of management or to any other 
representative office. Goods are sold, for cash, at current prices; 
but at the end of each quarter, half, or full year the "profits" or 
"dividends" (that is, the surplus over cost price plus expenses of 
management, etc.) are divided among the purchasers in proportion 
to the amount of purchases made. Non-members are permitted to 
purchase at the cooperative stores, and to participate in profits, 
but they usually receive only half the rate of dividend paid to 
members. 

Rockefeller Plan or Colorado Plan. A scheme of employee 
REPRESENTATION introduced into the Colorado Fuel and Iron Co. 
(owned largely by John D. Rockefeller, Jr.) after a disastrous strike 
in 1 9 13, and since adopted by several other large industrial concerns. 
It consists of a system of shop committees elected by and from among 
the company's own employees, without regard to their outside union 
affiliations; and these committees meet in joint session with the 
company's representatives, for the adjustment of grievances and 
other matters. 

Rotation of Shifts. See Shift System. 

Roumanian General Trade Union Commission. See 

CoMisiA Generala a Sindicatelur diu Rumania. 

Roustabouts. See Migratory Labor. 

Routing. This term sometimes refers to the physical lay-out 
of industrial plants and the relationship of departments. More 
commonly, however, it has to do (in connection with scientific 
management) with the analysis of the sequence of operations in 
industrial work, and the determination of the place and time for each 
operation or group of operations. Also called "scheduling" and 
"despatching." (See Functional Foremanship; Instruction 
Card System.) 

Rovers. See Migratory Labor. 

Rowan Plan. A form of the premium bonus system devised 
by James Rowan, a Glasgow employer, and widely adopted in British 
industry. Under this plan, for every ten per cent that is saved on 
the time allowed or base time for a particular job, the worker receives 
a ten per cent increase in earnings. Thus the cost per piece is reduced 
while the wage per hour is increased; but the rate can never go be- 

U13 ] 



yond twice the original rate per hour — because, in order to accom- 
plish a hundred per cent increase on the original rate the worker 
would have to save one hundred per cent of the time, or in other 
words he would have to do the job in no time at all. 

Royals. In English labor slang, these are picked men among 
the "casual" dockworkers — those who are on the preference lists of 
employers and are hired more frequently than the ordinary "casual" 
DOCKER. (See Reserve of Labor.) 

Royalty. In connection with British mining, this is a per- 
centage on the output of a mine paid by the mine operator to the 
Crown or other owner of the land upon which the mine is situated. 

Rule Book. See Working Rules. 

Rules. See Working Rules. 

Rump Union. A seceding or outlaw trade union is sometimes 
so designated by members of "regular" labor organizations. (See 
Secessionists.) 

Run -of -Mine System. See Screening System. 

Runaway Strike. See Independent Strike. 

Rusher. See Speeding Up. 

Ruskin College. This, the first residential college for working- 
class students in England, was founded at Oxford about twenty years 
ago by two Americans, Mr. and Mrs. Walter Vrooman. The aim of 
the founders was to establish an institution where workers endeavor- 
ing to elevate their class and not to rise out of it might obtain an edu- 
cation in the social sciences of most value to the growing democratic 
working-class movement, "untrammeled by the conventional out- 
look of any one school of thought or section or party." It is de- 
scribed by its officials as a " school of citizenship and public admin- 
istration for workingmen, endeavoring to create in each student a 
feeling that the education which he receives is not a means of personal 
advancement, but a trust for the good of others." The provisions for 
residential education at Ruskin CoUege are intended for workingmen 
who show special promise and who are likely to be called upon by 
their fellow workers to take up positions in which wise leadership is 
required; by this means they are enabled to come to Oxford and 
study the problems they may have to solve. By means of a cor- 
respondence course, the college reaches a great number of workers 

[414] 



who cannot take residence at Oxford. The college is supported 
mainly by trade unions, cooperative societies, and other working- 
class organizations, and partly by individual subscribers. The ma- 
jority of the students come to the college by means of scholarships 
provided by working-class organizations. The college aims to pro- 
vide a thoroughly broad education in economics, history, local gov- 
ernment, cooperation, and ti'ade unionism. English literature and 
French and German are also studied. 

Russian Communist Party. See Bolshevism 

Rustler. See Rustling Card. 

Rustling Card. Beginning in 1912, the Anaconda Copper 
Company of Butte, Montana, required every appHcant for employ- 
ment to fill out a blank giving full information regarding himself and 
his previous situations. If the information given was acceptable, 
the company issued to the applicant a card which entitled him to 
apply for work to any foreman of the mines. This card was called a 
"rustling card"; its holder was a ** rustler," one privileged to "rustle 
the mine" — i.e., apply for work among the mine foremen. No one 
without a "rustling card" was permitted to be taken on. With one 
or two important modifications, the rustling card system continues 
in operation at the present time. Now, however, it is under the con- 
trol of a joint employment office of most of the companies in the 
district, known as the Butte Mutual Labor Bureau. Its purpose is 
of course to keep out miners who are "undesirable" from the opera- 
tors' point of view. It has been the cause of much bitter feeling 
among the miners, who regard it as essentially a blacklist system. 
Somewhat similar employment systems, in which the use of what 
are called "rustling cards" is a prominent feature, are occasionally 
found in other American industries. 



S. D. F. See Social Democratic Federation. 

S. T. U. C. See Scottish Trades Union Congress. 

Sab -Cat. An I. W. W. nickname for the organization's 
familiar emblem — a black cat and a wooden shoe. "Sab" is an 
abbreviation of "sabotage," derived from the French sabot, a wooden 
shoe. The symbolism of the cat has not been explained. The emblem 
often appears in connection with such related mottoes as "A kick in 
time saves nine," "Kick your way out of wage slavery," "Our coat 
of arms: the shoe rampant," "A kick on the job is worth ten at the 
ballot-box," "Immediate demands: wooden shoes on all jobs," "The 
foot in the wooden shoe will rock the world," etc. The term "sab- 
cat" is sometimes applied to an individual I. W. W. who practices 
sabotage. 

Sabotage. Derived from the French word sabot, meaning a 
wooden shoe, this term is often supposed to have originally denoted 
the idea of stalling machinery by throwing a wooden clog into it. 
Probably its more direct derivation is from the French verb saboter 
(itself derived from sabot), meaning to bungle or to botch; while 
some find its origin in the French expression, "Travailler a coups de 
sabots," meaning to work as one wearing wooden shoes, often applied 
to lazy or slow-moving persons. If the derivation of the term is elu- 
sive, its precise meaning is even more difficult of statement. Accord- 
ing to J. A. Esty, sabotage "is a comprehensive term, covering every 
process by which the laborer, while remaining at work, tries to damage 
the interests of his employer, whether by simple malingering, or by 
bad quality of work, or by doing actual damage to tools and ma- 
chinery." In this sense, the most common forms of sabotage consist 
in systematic loafing at work, known as ca' canny or striking on 
the job; in wasting materials, turning out damaged or inferior 
goods, misdirecting shipments, etc. ; and in such acts as putting soap 
in engine boilers to retard the development of steam, putting sand in 

[416] 



delicate bearings, or short-circuiting electrical apparatus. But be- 
sides these and innumerable other forms of malicious sabotage, there 
are certain intrinsically harmless or (as far as the constmier is con- 
cerned) actually beneficial forms which are often practiced, but of 
which the above-quoted definition takes no account. In this latter 
class belong the common practice of living up to the letter of certain 
safety rules enacted by the employer for his own protection but not 
really intended to be observed — as exemplified in the work-to-rule 
movement; or the practice of doing a job so thoroughly and effi- 
ciently that there can be little if any profit in it for the employer; 
or telling a customer the precise truth about inferior or adulterated 
goods (called the open-mouth strike) ; or giving full weight when 
fraudulent scales are used; etc., etc. As simimarized by John 
Spar go, ''sabotage is a principle of action rather than a method — a 
principle of action capable of an almost infinite variety of applica- 
tions. It may involve violence, or it may be peaceful. It may 
involve destruction of property or it may not. It may be based on 
illegal acts or it may not. It may consist of telling lies or of telling 
the simple truth. ... It is essentially a furtive and stealthy policy, 
practiced by individual workers, having for its aim the obstruction 
of industry and business to such an extent that the employers will 
suffer a loss of profits so great as to be compelled to grant the workers' 
demands." Sabotage is in the social or industrial war what guerilla 
fighting is in national wars. While a favorite method of syndicalism 
and REVOLUTIONARY UNIONISM, it is for the most part vigorously 
repudiated by orthodox trade unionists. In common usage, the 
word "sabotage" has both its verbal and its adjectival forms — "to 
sabotage," "sabotaging," "sabotaged," etc. (See Conscientious 
Withdrawal op Efficiency; Scamping; Rattening; Gr£ve 
PerlSe; Strike op the Machine; Sabotage Law; Criminal 
Syndicalism Laws.) 

Sabotage Law. By this title is commonly known the Federal 
enactment of May, 19 18, which declares to be unlawful any associa- 
tion "one of whose purposes or professed purposes is to bring about 
any governmental, social, industrial or economic change within the 
United States by the use, without authority of law, of physical 
force, violence or physical injury to person or property, or by threats 
of such injury, or which teaches, advocates, advises or defends the 
use ... of physical force, violence or physical injury to person or 
property, or threats of such injury, to accomplish such change or 
for any other purpose, and which, during any war in which the 

[417] 



United States is engaged, shall by any such means prosecute or pur- 
sue such purpose or professed purpose, or shall so teach, advocate, 
advise or defend." Severe penalties are provided for anyone who 
connects himself in any way with such an association. 

Sack. In British labor slang, "to get the sack" is to be dis- 
charged from work; or, in an active sense, "to sack" a worker is to 
discharge him. At one time manufacturers who employed those 
who worked at home put the work in a bag or sack. If when brought 
back the work was satisfactory, the bag or sack was filled again 
with materials; if not, it was laid empty on the counter, and this 
indicated that the person would no longer be employed by the firm. 

Sacrificed Member. See Victimization. 

Safety. See Industrial Safety. 

Safety Appliance Act. A Federal enactment of 1897 *'to 
promote the safety of employees and travellers upon railroads by 
compelling the common carriers engaged in interstate commerce to 
equip their cars with automatic couplers and continuous brakes, and 
their locomotives with driving-wheel brakes, and for other purposes." 

Safety Codes. Standard instructions or regulations for the 
prevention of accidents, promotion of correct sanitary principles, 
etc., for particular industries, kinds of work, forms of machinery or 
other apparatus, etc. Under the general direction of the Bureau of 
Standards of the Federal Department of Commerce, a National 
Safety Code Committee has recently been formed, to organize the 
formulation of uniform national safety codes in all the main indus- 
tries of the country. The drafting and enforcing of industrial safety 
codes often forms an important part of a state industrial commis- 
sion's work. 

Safety Committees. See Industrial Safety. 

Safety Engineers. Technical experts employed in large in- 
dustrial plants to study the hazards of the particular work being 
carried on, to devise safeguards for the prevention of accidents, and 
to create the elements of attention, understanding, and discipline 
necessary to make those safeguards effective. Also called "safety 
supervisors." (See Engineering Revision.) 

Safety First Movement. The systematic effort, on the part 
of employers, public authorities, national, state, and local organiza- 
tions, etc., to prevent industrial and other accidents, to safeguard 

[418] 



hitman life, and to promote the health and welfare of working people. 
The rapid development of the "safety first movement" has closely 
followed the enactment of workmen's compensation laws and 
other forms of social insurance. (See Industrial Safety; In- 
dustrial Safety Laws; Safety Codes; Safety Survey; Safety 
Museums; Engineering Revision; Safety Engineers; Indus- 
trial Medicine.) 

Safety Museums. Permanent public displays of devices, ap- 
pliances, and methods of safeguarding the life, limbs, and health of 
industrial workers. In 19 16 there were such safety musetmis in four- 
teen European cities. For several years an American Museum of 
Safety was maintained in New York City, but this has now been 
temporarily discontinued. 

Safety Strike. A concerted refusal to work under conditions 
considered dangerous to life, limb, or health. Safety strikes are 
mainly confined to the mining industry. 

Safety Supervisors. See Safety Engineers. 

Safety Survey. A systematic investigation into the hazards 
to life, limb, and health in a particular industrial plant, including a 
study of the nature and causes of all industrial accidents that have 
occurred, carried on with a view to preventing such accidents in the 
future and to safeguarding the workers in all possible ways. 

St. Louis Platform. See Socialist Party of the United 
States. 

Saint -Simonism. The political and social system formulated 
by the Comte de Saint-Simon (1760-182 5), the founder of French 
socialism. Its central idea is the abolition of inheritance, and the 
union of all instnunents of labor in a social fund, to be exploited by 
association; the worker, however, being rewarded according to his 
skill and capacities, and not by equal division regardless of merit. 
(See Utopian Socialism.) 

Salariat. A name sometimes used in designation of that 
section of the working public (consisting of clerks, travelling sales- 
men, draftsmen, technical workers, etc.) which sells its labor for a 
month or a year at a time; so called because it receives a salary with 
a fixed tenure instead of daily or weekly wages during a period of 
uncertain duration, as is the case with the proletariat. This class 
is rapidly allying itself in nearly all countries with the proletariat, 

[419] 



in industrial trade union organizations. (See Blackcoats; Middle 
Class; Intellectual Proletariat.) 

Sand Hog. Nickname for a common laborer employed below 
the surface in tunnel or subway construction. 

Sanitation and Safety. Under this head Mr. and Mrs. Webb 
list the third class of trade union regulations involved in what they 
call the principle of the common rule. As summarized by George 
O'Brien, in his book on "Labor Organization," this is obviously "a 
subject which comes directly within trade union activity, because 
the conditions under which a man works are just as important a term 
of his contract of employment as the wages he receives or the length 
of his working day. Indeed, it may be said that a man working in 
a sanitary and safe factory is really receiving a higher wage than 
another man working at the same rate of wages in unhealthy and 
dangerous conditions. This class of regulations is one which cannot 
possibly be enforced by mutual insurance, and which can only be 
enforced with difficulty by means of collective bargaining. On 
the other hand, it lends itself particularly to the method of legal 
enactment, and thus we find that the first interference of Parlia- 
ment in the last century with industrial matters was concerned with 
the conditions of safety and sanitation in factories. The code, which 
has come to be known as the Factory Acts, has now grown to enor- 
mous proportions, and it is safe to say that the greater part of it 
would never have been passed had it not been for the agitation of 
trade unions concerned. In other words, the legal enactment often 
gave effect to the provisions of a collective bargain." 

Sanitorium Benefits. See National Insurance Act. 

Sankey Commission. A British royal commission appointed 
early in 19 19 to investigate wages and conditions in the British coal 
industry. It was composed of thirteen members, representing em- 
ployers in general, mine owners, labor in general, and miners, with 
Mr. Justice Sankey presiding. A majority report issued March 20 
declared that "the present system of ownership and working in the 
coal industry stands condemned " ; and this report, with two minority 
reports, proposed various changes in wage scales and working condi- 
tions. A second report, issued June 20, unanimously recommended 
that the royalty owners should be at once expropriated in favor of 
the State; while a minority report, with the chairman and six mem- 
bers in agreement, proposed an elaborate scheme of nationalization 
for the coal industry, with administration under a Minister of Mines 

[420] 



by joint district councils and pit committees, in which the miners 
would be largely represented. Contrary to the government's pledge 
to adopt the findings of the Sankey Commission, Mr. Lloyd George 
announced in October, 19 19, that while the government would pro- 
pose the nationalization of mining royalties and some undefined 
*' trustification" of the mines by districts, there would be no general 
adoption of the Sankey reports. No definite action in the matter has 
since been taken on the part of the government. The published pro- 
ceedings of the Sankey Commission created world-wide interest, 
because of the light which they threw on the disorganized workings of 
the British coal industry, the tremendous profits of the companies 
and owners, and the unsatisfactory conditions under which the 
miners lived and worked. 

Saturdaying. See Subbotnik. 

Satyagraha. See Hartal. 

Savings Bank Insurance. See Massachusetts Savings 
Banks Insurance and Pension System. 

Scab, Scabbing. Among trade unionists the term "scab" is 
applied, in general, to any person guilty of disloyalty to a trade union. 
The Bricklayers' and Masons' Union, for example, defines a scab as 
*'an employer or employee who has violated the laws of this or of 
subordinate unions, whom the members of the international union 
are debarred from working for or with until he or they have complied 
with the laws of said union." This union has different rates of fines 
for what the constitution terms "common scabs," "inveterate or 
notorious scabs," and union wreckers. The constitution of an- 
other union defines "scabbing "as follows: "A member of a union 
engaging to take a situation in the jurisdiction of another union at a 
lower rate of wages than the scale of prices of the latter union calls 
for, and failing for any cause to obtain the same, is guilty of scab- 
bing." In common current usage, however, the term "scab" is most 
often applied to any person who hires or volunteers to take the place 
of a worker out on strike. Such action is known as "scabbing," and 
those who thus act are said to have "scabbed." "Scab goods" are 
those produced or handled by scabs. Some national unions keep on 
file or publish at regular intervals a list of scabs, arranged according 
to the locals by which they were reported. In the eyes of trade 
unionists, "scabbing" is the sin of sins, and a scab is regarded with 
the same loathing and contempt that patriotic persons bestow upon 
28 [421] 



a national traitor. (See Blackleg; Union Scab; Rat; White 
Collar Scabs; Golden Scabs.) 

Scab Goods. See Scab. 

Scab -Herders. Private labor detective agencies and other 
concerns which make a practice of supplying professional strike- 
breakers are commonly known among organized workers by this 
epithet. 

Scab List. See Scab. 

Scab Union. See Union Scab. 

Scale. In the labor movement, a general designation for the 
varying rates of wages paid to different classes of workers or for 
different kinds of labor, in a particular industr}' as a whole or in a 
single establishment. Where such rates are fixed by collective 
bargaining, the term "union scale" is commonly used. In most 
cases the union scale aims to establish a minimum standard only. 
(See Price List; Incremental Scale.) 

Scale Committee. See Interstate Joint Conferences in 
the Coal-Mining Industry. 

Scale of Living. See Standard of Living. 

Scamping. Working in an intentionally slipshod, inefficient, 
or dishonest fashion, or causing others thus to ' ' scamp " or " skimp ' ' 
their work. As a wage-earner's policy, scamping is often a form of 
SABOTAGE, practiced by the dissatisfied worker. In its more common 
form it is an employer's policy, adopted to meet competition, increase 
profits, etc. . In a wholly different sense, a worker who so increases 
his individual output as to arouse the suspicions of his feUow-workers 
is said by the latter to be "scamping"; and this term is also 
sometimes used in designation of the act of an employer in ' ' stealing ' ' 
workers from his competitors. 

Scheduling. See Routing. 

Schulze-Delitzsch Banks. These institutions, the first of 
which was founded by Franz Schulze of Delitzsch, Germany, in 
1850, represent one of the two main types of European credit 
unions. Under the Schulze-Delitzsch plan, a number of persons in 
a town combine in guaranteeing a certain amount of capital, each 
person subscribing for one share only, of large value, to be paid for 
in small instalments. On the strength of this capital, the association 

[422 ] 



borrows money, which it in turn lends to its members at current 
interest rates. Profits are divided among the members, or placed in 
a reserve. Schulze-Delitzsch banks differ from Raiffeisen banks in 
that they mainly serve middle-class townspeople rather than the 
peasantry, are based upon share capital, are run for profit, and are 
conducted by paid directors. (See Credit Cooperation.) 

Schweizerischer Gewerkschaftsbund (Swiss Federation of 
Trade Unions). The national central organization of trade union 
workers in Switzerland; founded in 1880. The twenty-two national 
unions now affiliated in the Gewerkschaftsbund had a constituent 
membership in 1920 of 225,000. The Federation works in coopera- 
tion with the Swiss Socialist Party. 

Scientific Management. In the general theoretical definition 
of Professor Hoxie, this is "an attempt through accurate industrial 
analysis to discover and put into operation the objective facts and 
laws which underlie true efficiency in production. In its broadest 
and best application it attempts through this process of analysis 
to determine the best location and structure of the shop for the par- 
ticular manufacture designed; the most efficient processes and 
methods of production in general and in detail; the material, organic 
and human arrangements and relationships best suited to further 
the productive process; the most effective character, arrangement 
and uses of the machinery, tools and materials employed; the meth- 
ods of selection and training of the workmen and managerial force 
most conducive to efficiency; the character and amount of work 
which can and ought to be performed by each member of the labor 
and managerial force; the payment to be accorded each individual 
in the interests of efficiency and justice; and in general it aims to 
discover all the material, organic and human qualities, arrangements 
and relationships which will result in greatest output and lowest 
cost." In its practical industrial appHcation, the primary object of 
scientific management is "to increase output, reduce the cost per 
unit of production, and raise the wages of operators. This is ac- 
complished: first, by determining with the aid of experienced investi- 
gators the best equipment, materials, and methods to use; second, 
by selecting and training the workmen best fitted to accomplish the 
result desired; third, by determining in advance a standard of 
achievement for the workmen, providing them with the necessary 
working conditions, and rewarding them with a bonus for attaining 
this standard." The term "scientific management " (first used about 
19 10) originally had specific reference to what is commonly known 

[ 423 ] 



as the Taylor system, but it has gradually extended in scope to 
cover not only various modifications of the Taylor system but 
certain original developments in the same field. Scientific manage- 
ment is sometimes referred to as "industrial engineering," "efficiency 
engineering," "business engineering," etc., and (less often) as "task 
management." The usual trade union hostility toward scientific 
management is based on various reasons, valid or otherwise, which 
cannot be fully discussed here. But it should at least be noted that 
the claim, so often advanced by advocates of the system, that scien- 
tific management does away with all necessity for collective bar- 
gaining, will not bear serious examination. As G. D. H. Cole points 
out, "all the time-study in the world cannot show how much ought 
to be paid for a job. It can only show at most the length of time a 
job ought to take. That is to say, it cannot determine what is to be 
the STANDARD OF LIVING or of remuneration of the workers. Piece- 
work prices are inevitably fixed in relation to an assumed standard 
of living of the worker employed, and time-study gets one no further 
towards the determination of this standard." Scientific manage- 
ment "does not, and can not, touch the question of the proper division 
of the product between Labor and Capital, or of the propriety or 
impropriety of any such division. It does nothing to remove the 
need for collective bargaining and trade union organization." (For 
descriptions of the chief systems of scientific management, see 
Taylor System; Emerson System; Gantt System. For accounts 
of wage-payment methods under scientific management, in addition 
to those noted in the above-mentioned entries, see Premium Bonus 
System; Differential Piece Rate System; Halsey Plan; 
Rowan Plan; Weir Plan; Three-Rate System of Wage Pay- 
ment. For accounts of other factors in scientific management, see 
Functional Foremanship; Exception Principle; Time Study; 
Motion Study; Time and Motion Study; Over-All Time Study; 
Task; Task Time; Instruction Card System; Routing; First 
Inspection; Base Rate; Base Time. See also, Speed-Up System; 
Taylorism; Efficiency Payments; Fatigue.) 

Scientific Socialism. (Also called Marxian, Economic, and 
Revolutionary Socialism.) The school of socialist theory, formulated 
by Karl Marx in the Communist Manifesto (1848) and "Capital" 
(1867-1894), which has had the largest influence upon the modem 
socialist movement. It employs the historical method in economic 
interpretation. On the basis of past changes in economic organiza- 
tion, such as those from slavery to feudalism and from feudalism 

[424] 



to CAPITALISM, according to Marx two distinct classes have been 
created: the exploiting and the exploited; and between these two 
there must be inevitable conflict (the class struggle), which would 
finally end in the overthrow of the bourgeoisie and a dictatorship 
OF THE proletariat. In his view, the transference of the ownership 
of the means of production and distribution to the State is the 
ultimate goal of the working-class movement; to achieve the over- 
throw of capitalism is the ** historic mission" of the proletariat. 
Marx's main contributions to socialist theory are (i) his demonstra- 
tion that the socialist commonwealth can be built directly on cap- 
italist foundations, and (2) his dogmatic belief that the evolution of 
capitalism into socialism is inevitable. Scientific socialism scorns the 
ideology of Utopian socialism, holding that the history of social in- 
stitutions is not the record of man's moral initiative, but of economic 
determinism — the working of material forces obeying immutable 
laws. (See Socialism; Concentration of Capital Theory; In- 
creasing Misery Theory; Surplus Value Theory; Exploita- 
tion; Revisionists; Neo-Marxians; Bolshevism; State Social- 
ism; Christian Socialism.) 

Scissorbill. A slang term used mainly by I. W. W. members 
in the West in designation of a worker who holds aloof from the class- 
conscious labor movement or cooperates with the employers in active 
opposition to that movement. 

Scottish Trades Union Congress. A delegate body repre- 
senting about 250,000 members of Scottish trades councils, Scot- 
tish sections of British trade unions, and trade unions of wholly 
Scottish membership. Its organization and functions are similar to 
those of the British Trades Union Congress, and like that body it 
maintains a Parliamentary Committee. 

Screening System. In bituminous coal-mining, where the 
method of contract mining largely prevails, it is desirable for com- 
mercial reasons that the coal be taken out in fairly large lumps. The 
operators therefore adopted the practice of running the coal over 
a screen before it was weighed, and paying the miner only for the 
lump coal or that which did not pass through the screen. This prac- 
tice was strenuously opposed by the miners, who maintained that 
they were thus robbed of a considerable part of their legitimate 
earnings, and that they should be paid for all coal just as it comes 
from the mines — what is called the " run-of -mine " or "mine-run" 
system. Most of the coal-mining states in this country have passed 

[4251 



statutes prohibiting the screening of coal before it is weighed, or 
fixing the size of the screen-mesh (known as "anti-screening laws" 
or "coal screening laws"), but in some cases these statutes have been 
held unconstitutional. In one state at least, what is known as the 
"double-standard basis" has been fixed. The mine-owner may 
elect to pay on either a screened-coal or a run-of-mine basis; but 
having made his choice, he must stick to it. Where the screening 
system is followed, the men are paid at a higher rate than under the 
run-of-mine system. 

Script or Script Payments. Pay orders (also called "store 
orders" or "store pay") issued to workers in lieu of wages, which 
are exchangeable at par for goods in a company store, or may usually 
be converted into legal money at a discount from their face value. 
The use of script is prohibited by law in several states, and is subject 
to considerable restrictions in others. In cases where script may be 
used, its use is generally guarded by requirements for cash redemp- 
tion at par within short-time limits, and for interest payments if not 
redeemed at an early date. (See Truck System.) 

Seamen's Act. An important measure sponsored by Senator 
La Follette and passed by Congress in 191 5, after long agitation 
by Andrew Furuseth and other leaders of the Seamen's Union. The 
Act is divided into two sections, one dealing with the status of the 
seaman and the conditions under which he shall work, the other with 
provisions for the safety of passengers and crew in case of shipwreck. 
The most important provision of the law is that calling for the abroga- 
tion of treaties for the apprehension of deserting sailors, and the 
substitution therefor of the provision that a sailor deserting his ship 
shall forefeit the effects he left on board and such wages as may then 
be due him. Since it is also provided that at any port where the ves- 
sel shall stop, the seaman shall upon demand be entitled to one half 
of the wages due him, this really means that he may leave the ship 
before the completion of the voyage upon forfeiture of half his wages. 
This applies to sailors on foreign ships in American ports as well as 
on ships of American registry. There are provisions penalizing the 
shipowner for failure to provide adequate accommodations and 
wholesome food for the ship's crew; and a number of minor sections. 
This law is regarded by the seamen as their Magna Charta ; it raises 
the American seaman to the status of a freeman, and indirectly, 
through its application to foreign ships in American ports, it operates 
to make the foreign sailor a freeman as well. It tends also, naturally, 
to make the American wage the standard wage for all ships, since the 

[426] 



foreign sailor may leave his ship in an American port and reship at 
the American wage. 

• Seasonal Fluctuations. The fairly regular alternation of 
busy months and slack months in various trades and industries — 
as for instance, the winter slackness and the spring and summer 
activity in the building trades. While generally due, either directly 
or indirectly, to varying climatic conditions, other factors — for 
example, the caprices of fashion — have part in producing these 
fluctuations, which are the rule rather than the exception in industry 
as a whole. They make for a considerable proportion of the total 
yearly volume of unemployment. (See Cyclical Fluctuations; 
Lay-Off System.) 

Seasonal Occupations or Seasonal Industries. Those in 
which the amount of labor demanded varies widely at different 
seasons of the year. Wheat harvesting and cloak making are examples 
of seasonal occupations ; in the first case because the product is perish- 
able and must be moved immediately, and in the second case be- 
cause of the effect of fashion and of retailing methods. The seasonal 
worker must earn enough during the busy season to tide over the 
slack period or attempt to find a secondary occupation. The seasonal 
character of many industries and occupations makes not only for a 
considerable increase in the yearly volume of unemployment, but 
for the permanent creation of "casual" and "migratory" workers in 
large numbers. The dovetailing of seasonal occupations, so 
as to provide continued employment for workers during the slack 
seasons of their regular trades, has been often proposed as a desir- 
able activity for public employment exchanges. (See Buffer Em- 
ployment; Seasonal Fluctuations; Labor Outings.) 

Secession, Secessionists. With specific reference to trade 
unionism, the term "secession" usually denotes the withdrawal or 
separation of either (i) a group of trade unionists from a local labor 
body; (2) a local or district union from a national or international 
union; (3) a national or international union from a national or other 
federation. The individuals involved in such separation or with- 
drawal are called "secessionists." (See Rump Union; Dual Union; 
Outlaws; Vacationists.) 

Second Internationale. See Internationale; Interna- 
tional Socialist Bureau. 

Secondary Arbitration. See Arbitration. 

[427 ] 



Secondary Boycott. See Boycott. 

Secondary Poverty. See Poverty. 

Secretary of Labor. The chief officer of the United States 
Department of Labor, and the tenth member of the President's 
Cabinet. He is charged with the duty of "fostering, promoting, and 
developing the welfare of the wage earners of the United States, 
improving their working conditions, and advancing their opportuni- 
ties for profitable emplojnnent. " He has power under the law to act 
as MEDIATOR and to appoint commissioners of conciliation in labor 
disputes. He has authority to direct the collecting and collating of 
labor statistics; the gathering and publication of information regard- 
ing labor interests and labor controversies in this and other countries; 
the administration and supervision of the immigration and naturali- 
zation laws; and the work of investigating all matters pertaining to 
the welfare of children and child life. Associated with the Secretary 
are an Assistant Secretary, heads of the various bureaus and divisions, 
and a number of lesser officials. 

Sectionalism. In the trade union movement, this term 
refers to the jealousies and quarrels arising between rival unions in 
the same craft or industry, over questions of jurisdiction, auton- 
omy, etc. The evils of sectionalism are largely disposed of by the 
process known as amalgamation, with its resultant centralized 
control. 

Selbstandige Vereine. In the German labor movement these 
are independent unions, standing outside the three main bodies or 
sections of trade unionism in Germany. They were reported to have 
214,360 members at the end of 1918, of whom 90,000 belonged to 
the Berlin Railwaymen's Association. 

Self -Employment. A term sometimes used in connection with 
producers' COOPERATION, under which the worker is employed not 
by a private capitalist or entrepreneur, but by an association of 
which he himself is a member. 

Self -Governing Workshop. Except as applied to an industrial 
enterprise based on thorough-going principles of producers' co- 
operation, this term has no accurate significance. It is often used, 
however, in designation of establishments where some measure of 
employee representation is in operation. (See Industrial 
Democracy.) 

Self -Insurance. See Workmen's Compensation. 

[428] 



Semi-skilled Worker. One who is able to perform a given 
process or operate a single machine, bu' who has not received such 
thorough training that he can, for example, repair the machinery that 
he uses. (See Skilled Worker; Unskilled Worker.) 

Seniority. The comparative status of a worker with reference 
to length and quality of service. Workers are often selected for pro- 
motion, or for assignment to the more desirable jobs, or for retention 
during a slack period, on the basis of seniority. In the railroad in- 
dustry particularly, where the workers are generally classified and 
graded in each department on this basis, seniority is an important 
factor with the individual worker; and the loss of seniority, due to 
participation in a strike or for other cause, is considered a serious 
set-back. 

Separations. See Mobility of Labor. 

Serfdom or Villeinage. The second stage in labor evolution, 
following SLAVERY. Under this system, the serf or villein was an 
agricultural worker, bound to the land and bought and sold with it, 
like cattle. But, unlike the slave, he might buy his freedom by 
paying his master either annually or outright a simi of money pre- 
sumably equal to the value of his services. The abolishment of serf- 
dom in Russia in the early sixties of the 19th century marked the 
end of this system. (See Feudalism; Servile Labor.) 

Service Department. See Welfare Work. 

Service Director or Manager. See Welfare Work. 

Service Letter. See Clearance Letter. 

Servile Labor. Any system of labor under which the laborer 
is not a free agent, but is involuntarily bound to work for a specified 
master for an indefinite period. Slavery, serfdom, and peonage 
are the principal forms of servile labor. (See Contract Labor; 
Native Labor.) 

Servile State. An epithet used by opponents of socialism 
in designation of the socialized State — one in which, as they assert, 
there would be no room for individual action or initiative, all citizens 
being mere dependents or servants of the government. In Hilaire 
Belloc's book with this title, the "servile state" is defined as "that 
arrangement of society in which so considerable a number of the 
families and individuals are constrained by positive law to labor for 
the advantage of other families and individuals as to stamp the whole 
community with the mark of such labor." 

[429] 



Seven -Day Week. See One Day's Rest in Seven. 

Seven -Day Worker, See One Day's Rest in Seven. 

Sex Unions. While this term is usually applied to women's 
trade unions, it is equally applicable to those men's unions which 
refuse to admit women workers. 

Shape. The circle or horseshoe formation which "casual" 
longshoremen seeking work are required to asstmie when they ar- 
rive at the docks each morning, is so called. After the ** shape" is 
assembled, the foreman or stevedore looks the men over, and picks 
out those whom he wants. 

Share Cropper. See Cropper. 

Share Tenant. See Cropper. 

Sharing of Work. See Work Sharing. 

Shenangoes. A slang term applied to "down-and-out" long- 
shoremen who are capable of light casual labor only, and who 
finally become a charge upon public or private charity. 

Sherman Anti-Trust Law. A Congressional enactment of 
1890, forbidding all combinations in restraint of interstate and 
foreign trade. Under a decision of the Supreme Court in the Dan- 
bury hatters' case, it was held that trade unions came under the 
restrictions of the act. After a long and bitter battle on the part of 
organized labor, this liability was removed by the Clayton Act in 
1914. 

Shift Boss. See Pit Boss. 

Shift Schedules. See Shift System. 

Shift System. In the operation of continuous industries, 
and in other industries where night work is habitually or occasion- 
ally resorted to, it is necessary to divide the working force into two 
or three groups known as "shifts" or "turns," each group working 
but one period during the twenty-four hours. Under what is called 
the "two-shift system" only two groups of workers are utilized; and 
if the industry is a continuous one, each group must work twelve 
hours during the twenty-four — as is the case with large ntimbers of 
workers in the American steel industry. Under the more humane 
and enlightened "three-shift system," there are three groups of 
workers, each group usually working eight hours out of the twenty- 

[430] 



four. In some establishments the same workers are assigned to the 
same shift throughout the year; but in others the plan of "rotation 
of shifts" is followed — that is to say, under the "three-shift system," 
for example, a worker might be assigned to the "morning shift" for 
one week or several weeks, then to the "afternoon shift" for a like 
period, and then to the "night shift." Where it is required that the 
worker be given a continuous rest of not less than twenty-four hours 
each week, it is necessary in order not to interfere with continuous 
operation to devise more or less elaborate "shift schedules," and also 
in most cases to employ special "relief workers," who fill the places 
of those members of a shift who are absent for a weekly day of rest. 
The shift system is sometimes known as the * * turn system . " " Double 
ttim" refers to the two-shift system; while "single turn" refers to 
the ordinary method of day work, in which the shift system is not 
used. Among railway men, telegraphers, and some other classes of 
workers, a shift is usually known as a "trick." Thus, tmder the two- 
shift system there would be what the workers call a "day trick" and 
a "night trick." (See Split Shift; Long Turn; Lobster Shift; 
Eight-Hour Day; Two-Day Shift System.) 

Shinyu Kai. See Japanese Labor Organizations. 

Shipwreck Benefit. Under this form of trade benefit, 
which is peculiar to the International Seamen's Union, members are 
recompensed to a certain specified amount for the loss of clothes or 
other belongings through shipwreck. 

Shop. Strictly speaking, a single unit or department (such 
as a machine-shop, a foundry-room, a packing-room, etc.) of a fac- 
tory or other industrial establishment, the factory as a whole being 
known as a plant or works. In common usage, however, this dis- 
tinction is not maintained, and "shop" often refers to the establish- 
ment as a whole. This is particularly true in regard to such terms 
as "open shop," "closed shop," "shop union," etc. 

Shop Agreement or Shop Bargain. This, the simplest form 
of trade agreement, is an arrangement arrived at between the work- 
ers in a single shop and their employer or his representative, in regard 
to such matters as wages, hours of work, working conditions, etc. 

Shop Bonus. See Collective Bonus System. 

Shop Call. A custom in the American hat industry which 
is said to go back to colonial times and which existed in some locali- 
ties up to 1885. It is thus described in docker's "Government of 

[431] 



American Trade Unions": "For many years, whenever any manj 
woman, or child working in a hat factory had a grievance, he or she 
cried, 'Shop called.* Immediately a meeting of all the employees 
in the shop was held, and the complaint was laid before them. If the 
grievance was considered just, a committee was appointed to wait 
upon the employer; and if this committee reported a rejection of its 
demands, the members of the shop assembled in meeting decided 
whether or not to strike." 

Shop Card. See Union Shop Card. 

Shop Chairman. The presiding officer of a shop committee, 
or the representative of the workers in a given shop. In many cases, 
there is no practical distinction between a shop chairman and a 
SHOP STEWARD. In some of the railway brotherhoods, the shop 
chairman is termed "protective chairman." (See Shop Collector; 
Convener.) 

Shop Club. Any form of organization that is limited to the 
workers in a single shop or establishment is commonly so called — 
from the informal shop meeting, on the one hand, to the formal 
shop union on the other. Genetically, according to Professor Hoxie, 
"the union was a shop club; that is to say, a meeting of the workers 
in a shop or factory to consider the wages and conditions of employ- 
ment in the particular shop, and in some imions shop clubs are still 
a recognized part of the union machinery. In the printers* trade it 
is known as the chapel." (See Trade Club.) 

Shop Collector. In some labor organizations, especially 
those which still maintain shop unions, this is a union member 
charged with the collection of dues, fines, assessments, etc., owing to 
the union from members in the particular shop or establishment 
where the collector is employed. He may perform other duties as 
well, such as reporting "open" jobs in his shop, assisting in the 
administration of benefit funds, affixing the union label, investi- 
gating shop grievances, etc. In some cases his duties are practically 
the same as those of a shop chairman or shop steward. 

Shop Committee. A body representative of the workers in 
a single industrial establishment, or of a single department of an 
establishment, and consisting of delegates elected by vote of all the 
workers. Its function is to deal with the employer or management 
in regard to working conditions and arrangements, the adjustment of 
grievances, and similar other matters. In the United States the term 

[ 432 ] 



"shop committee system" is rather indiscriminately applied to 
almost any plan of employee representation, and generally the 
basis of representation is for an entire establishment, rather than 
for separate "shops" or departments. But in England, where the 
movement made great headway during the recent war, a shop com- 
mittee is always representative of the workers in a single department 
or unit of an industrial establishment, in their dealings with the man- 
agement over matters connected with that department. It is thus 
carefully differentiated from a works committee or works council, 
which represents the workers of all departments or shops of an indus- 
trial plant. Shop committees are of various kinds: those which, 
though elected largely by union members, are not officially related 
to the tmion's machinery; those which have an organic connection 
with a union; and those which have no connection with trade unions, 
being introduced by the employer in connection with some plan of 
employee representation or company union. As to functions, most 
shop committees have to do with grievances, working conditions — 
safety, sanitation, hygiene, etc. — ^wages, hours of labor, and methods 
of wage payments. The effectiveness of the shop committee lies in 
the fact that it can deal with plant conditions far more directly and 
intimately than can the ordinary trade union. For the adjustment 
of minor disputes, grievances, etc., and as a means of bringing the 
workers into direct contact not only with the management but 
with many of the difficulties with which the management has to 
deal, it is an agency of undoubted value. But the extravagant 
claims often made that it gives the workers a joint share in the con- 
trol and direction of industry remain as yet unsubstantiated. Dur- 
ing the recent war the shop committee system was introduced into 
a ntunber of large industrial plants at the initiative of the National 
War Labor Board. (See Joint Shop Committee; Craft Com- 
mittee; Shop Council; Shop Chairman; Pit Committee; Shop 
Steward Movement; Factory Management in Russia; Dis- 
charge OF Wage Earners in Russia. 

Shop Council. In some establishments the ordinary shop 
committee is so called. Occasionally the term is used in specific 
designation of a joint shop committee. 

Shop Crafts. With particular reference to the railway in- 
dustry, these are the crafts or occupations carried on inside the shop 
— as distinguished from the work of operating trains, maintaining 
the road-beds, etc. In the United States, there are six principal inter- 
national unions of railway shop crafts — the machinists, blacksmiths, 

[433] 



boilermakers, sheet-metal workers, electrical workers, and railway 
carmen; all of these are affiliated in the Railway Employees' De- 
partment of the American Federation of Labor. 

Shop Delegate. See Shop Steward. 

Shop Deputy. See Shop Steward. 

Shop Meeting. An informal assembly at regular intervals 
of all workers in the same shop or establishment, to consider matters 
relating to their common emplojnnent. The shop meeting is the most 
primitive form of labor organization in this country, going back 
almost if not quite to colonial times; and it is still not uncommon 
today, although largely superseded by the shop committee system. 
(See Shop Call; Shop Club.) 

Shop Piece Work. See Collective Piece Work. 

Shop Representative. See Shop Steward. 

Shop Steward. In many British and American trades, it has 
long been the custom to maintain a workers' official who looks after 
the local union's interests in a particular shop or establishment. 
This official is generally known as a shop steward, although in certain 
trades he is otherwise designated — as for example, "father of the 
chapel" among printers, shop collector among cigar makers, 
patrolman among seamen, etc. "Shop delegate," "shop dep- 
uty," "shop representative," "card inspector," collector, and 
"yard committee-man" are other variants — chiefly British. This 
official is sometimes elected by the local union, sometimes by his 
fellow-workmen in the same shop or factory. He collects the union 
dues of members. In closed or union shops he keeps watch that only 
those in good standing with the union are permitted to work. He 
reports to the local union the number of unfilled positions in the 
factory. He detects and reports any deviation from the standard 
scale of wages, hours, and other working conditions estabHshed by the 
society. When his organization affixes a label on union-made goods, 
he often has charge of distributing and attaching these labels at the 
factory. In France the shop steward is known as delegue de V atelier — 
delegate or representative of the workshop. (See Shop Steward 
Movement; Shop Chairman; Ticket Steward; Watch Com- 
mittee.) 

Shop Steward Movement. An important phase of the British 
labor movement, originating on the Clyde late in 19 14 and continuing 

[434] 



to the present time. As noted in the preceding entry, many British 
trade unions have long maintained minor officials known as shop 
STEWARDS, who lookcd after the business affairs and general interests 
of the union in shop or works. With the outbreak of the world war 
and the subsequent suspension of trade union conditions in many of 
the most important British industries, under the so-called industrial 
TRUCE, the adjustment of shop grievances and other dealings with 
Individual employers fell largely to the official shop stewards in the 
various "controlled" establishments. As a result, their position and 
prestige became much enhanced, particularly in the engineering and 
shipbuilding trades. But side by side with these union representa- 
tives there arose a class of unofficial shop stewards, appointed not by 
the trade unions but by the "rank and file" workers in the shop. 
These unofficial shop stewards rapidly organized into works com- 
mittees, and elected chairmen, secretaries, and conveners. It was 
not long before they had become the recognized representatives of 
the workers in negotiations with the management regarding the nu- 
merous important questions that arose in regard to dilution, wages 
and methods of remuneration, timekeeping, etc. A national organ- 
ization of shop stewards was formed, at first mainly for propagandist 
purposes. But with the coming of peace the shop stewards have 
been loath to relinquish their wartime power and authority, and 
their movement has been considered a somewhat serious challenge 
by the "regular" trade union leaders. It is difficult to say how far 
the shop steward movement was a result of war conditions, and how 
far it represented a revolt against cumbrous trade union machinery 
and centralized control. It may certainly be said to constitute one 
of the most important evidences of the trend toward workers* 
control. So far no general means has been devised for securing 
recognition of the shop stewards' committees by either the trade 
unions or the employers, and the whole future of the movement is 
decidedly obscure. (See Rank and File Movement; Watch 
Committee.) 

Shop Stoppage. See Stoppage. 

Shop Strike. One that is confined to the workers in a single 
shop or establishment. Shop strikes are of most frequent occurrence 
among unorganized workers. 

Shop Union. An organization of workers in a single shop 
or estabHshment. The shop union is, as a rule, either a recognized 
unit of a national or local labor organization, or an "independent" 

[435] 



body formed or fostered by an employer — what is commonly known 
as a COMPANY UNION. In the former case, it sometimes takes the 
place of a local in a community where there are not enough members 
of the national union to make the formation of a local practicable; 
and even where a local exists, the shop union may possess certain 
autonomous powers in collective bargaining, the calling of 
strikes, etc. But in the main it is now primarily a convenient ad- 
ministrative unit for the transaction of a limited number of executive 
functions especially delegated to it by the local. Certain officials, 
elected sometimes by the shop and sometimes by the local, collect 
dues, affix the label to union-made goods, and perform other carefully 
specified duties. (See Sub-Local; Preceptory; Shop Club; 
Shop Strike; Shop Collector.) 

Short Hour Movement. The organized effort, beginning in 
England early in the 19th century, and continuing until the present 
time, to secure a shorter working day for industrial wage-earners. 
As the common ideal of labor has long been a working day limited 
to eight hours, the "short hour movement" and the ''eight-hour 
movement" are or until recently have been largely synonymous 
terms. *'0n the side of the working population," according to the 
Report of the Federal Industrial Commission, ''there can be no 
question respecting the desirability of fewer hours, from every stand- 
point. They gain not only in health, but also in intelligence, morality, 
temperance, and preparation for citizenship. Even in those cases 
where machinery has not increased the intensity of exertion, a long 
workday with the machine, especially where work is greatly special- 
ized, in many cases reduces the grade of intelligence. The old hand- 
work shops were schools of debate and discussion, and they are so 
at the present time where they survive in country districts; but the 
factory imposes silence and discipline for all except the highest. Long 
workdays under such conditions tend to inertia and dissipation when 
the day's work is done. Lessening of hours leaves more opportimity 
and more vigor for the betterment of character, the improvement of 
the home, and for studying the problems of citizenship. For these 
reasons the short workday for working people brings an advantage 
to the entire community. ... A reduction of hours is the most sub- 
stantial and permanent gain which labor can secure. In times of 
depression employers are often forced to reduce wages, but very 
seldom do they, under such circtmistances, increase the hours of 
labor. The temptation to increase hours comes in times of pros- 
perity and business activity, when the employer sees opportunity for 

[436] 



increasing his output and profits by means of overtime. This dis- 
tinction is of great importance. The demand for increased hours 
comes at a time when labor is strongest to resist, and the demand 
for lower wages comes at a time when labor is weakest. A gain in 
wages can readily be offset by secret agreements and evasions, where 
individual workmen agree to work below the scale; but a reduction 
of hours is an open and visible gain, and there can be no secret eva- 
sion. Having once secured the shorter working day, the question of 
wages can be adjusted from time to time according to the stress of 
the market." (See Eight-Hour Day; Six-Hour Day; Hour 
Laws; Steward's Theory of W^iges.) 

Short Time. A working day or week of less than the normal 
nimiber of hours estabHshed as the full time basis in a particular 
industry, occupation, or industrial plant. Short time is usually 
adopted in a period of dull markets or general industrial depression 
— often as an expedient in relief of unemployment. As distinguished 
from what is called ** broken time," it generally implies a fixed and 
uniform number of hours per day and week whereas under broken 
time the nimiber of working hours commonly fluctuates from day to 
day or from week to week. In England, what is known as " organized 
short time" is the most familiar palliative for unemployment. 
According to Professor Bowley, there is "a group of industries in 
which certainly more than two million persons are employed, in which 
it is the custom to regulate the working week in relation to the 
demand for the product, employing nearly the same nimiber of per- 
sons in good trade and in bad, but working short time when the 
market becomes overstocked. . . Coal-mining is the most conspicuous 
industry of this group. The textile trades (cotton, wool, and others) 
organize employment with a similar result; short time is worked 
or the work is spread out among the operatives, when the demand is 
slack; but the great number of those employed in moderately busy 
times draw some wages nearly every week." 

Shutdown. The temporary closing of an industrial plant, 
usually owing to lack of business, over-production, or some other 
reason not directly related to labor troubles. 

Sick Benefits. See Disability Benefits; Sickness Insur- 
ance. 

Sick Committee. See Malingering. 

Sick Steward. In British trade unions, a local official whose 
business it is to look after those members of his branch who are 

[437] 



incapacitated for work by illness or accident and who are conse- 
quently in receipt of sick benefits. 

Sick Worker. It is a common practice for a skilled worker 

in the British cotton industry to arrange with an 'understudy" 
(usually a retired member of the "trade") who takes the place of 
the regular operative when the latter is absent on account of sickness 
or home emergency. Such an * ' understudy ' ' is called a * ' sick worker. ' ' 

Sickness Insurance. This, the commonest form of social 
INSURANCE, protects the worker in part at least for loss of wages 
during a period of illness. Besides cash payments, commonly called 
"sick benefits," such insurance usually provides for medical aid and 
supplies. It often makes provision also for meeting the cost of 
funeral expenses, should the illness prove fatal. Sickness insiirance 
is a State function, on a compulsory basis, in nearly all European 
countries, the State as a rule cooperating with the existing mutual 
"sick benefit" funds of various kinds, such as fraternal societies, 
trade unions, establishment funds, etc. In some countries the law 
has also brought into existence new insurance a^ociations, known 
as "local sick funds," for the insurance of persons not members of 
any other society. In the United States sickness insurance is largely, 
if not wholly, a function of trade unions, mutual aid societies, 
etc. It is sometimes known as "health insurance" and "disability 
insurance." Investigations made by the Federal Commission on 
Industrial Relations led to the conclusion that "each of the 
thirty-odd million wage-earners in the United States loses an average 
of nine days a year through sickness. At an average of $2 per day, 
the wage loss from this source is over $500,000, cx)o. At the average 
cost of medical expenses ($6 per capita per year) there is added to 
this at the very least, $180,000,000." The Commission's staff also 
came to the conclusion that "sickness among wage-earners is primarily 
the direct result of poverty, which manifests itself in insufficient 
diet, bad housing, inadequate clothing, and generally tmfavorable 
surroundings in the home. The surroundings at the place of work 
and the personal habits of the worker are important but secondary 
factors." (See National Insurance Act; Group Insurance; 
Maternity Insurance; Caisse de Secours Mutuel.) 

Simple Boycott. See Boycott. 

Sindicatos Catolicos (Catholic Unions). See Spanish Labor 

Movement. 

[438] 



Single Arbitrator. See Continuous Arbitration; Con- 
ciliation Act. 

Single -Branch Union. In England, generally a small local 
trade union, comprising from a dozen members upwards, with the 
simplest form of internal government. Some of these unions, how- 
ever, are large and comparatively powerful organizations; and in 
at least one union (the Amalgamated Society- of Paper Makers), 
the membership is not localized in any particular district. As a 
rule, single-branch tmions are governed on the most democratic 
basis. To quote from O'Brien's "Labor Organization": ''Important 
decisions are come to by the whole of the members voting; and the 
administration is carried on by an executive committee elected from 
amongst the members themselves. This committee usually consists 
of actual workmen in the trade, who receive no remuneration for 
their services to the union. As a rule unions of this type issue peri- 
odical balance-sheets, reports and statements, but do not issue any 
other literature. Occasionally, however, when the small local union 
forms part of a larger federal organization, the latter issues reports 
of its own which contain reports from the various single branch 
unions of which it is composed, and in this case it is sometimes diffi- 
cult to say where a federal organization of single branch units passes 
into a national union with local branches." 

Single Foremanship. The plan which prevails in industrial 
operations where one foreman is charged with all the details of 
directing and overseeing a group of workers. Under scientific 
management, this plan is superseded by the system of functional 

FOREMANSHIP. 

Single -Handed Piece Work. See Individual Piece Work. 

Single Tax. The popular designation for a theory of taxation 
and of fundamental economic reform, first fully and clearly formu- 
lated by Henry George (183 9-1 89 7) in his famous book, ''Progress 
and Poverty." The essence of the theory is thus stated by George: 
"We propose to abolish all taxes save one single tax levied on the 
value of land, irrespective of the value of improvements in or on 
it. What we propose is not a tax on real estate, for real estate 
includes improvements. Nor is it a tax on land, for we would not 
tax all land, but only land having a value irrespective of its improve- 
ments, and would tax that in proportion to that value. Our tax 
involves the imposition of no new tax, since we already tax land 
values in taxing real estate. To carry it out we have only to abolish 

[ 439 ] 



all taxes save the tax on real estate and to abolish all of that which 
now falls on buildings or improvements, leaving only that part of 
it which now falls on the value of the bare land. This we would in- 
crease so as to take as nearly as may be the whole value of the 
economic rent, or what is sometimes styled the ' unearned increment 
of land values.'" The wide-reaching effects of such a method of 
taxation are summarized by George as follows: "We hold that to 
tax labor or its products is to discourage industry. We hold that to 
tax land values to their full amount will render it impossible for any 
man to exact from others a price for the privilege of using those 
bounties of nature in which all living men have an equal right of use; 
that it will compel every individual controlling natural opportunities 
to utilize them by emplojTnent of labor or abandon them to others; 
that it will thus provide opportunities of work for all men, and secure 
to each the full reward of his labor; and that as a result involimtary 
POVERTY will be abolished, and the greed, intemperance, and vice 
that spring from poverty and the dread of poverty will be swept 
away." The single tax doctrine has exerted a powerful influence upon 
the labor movement, both in the United States and abroad. Accord- 
ing to Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Webb, it was the wide circulation in 
Great Britain of Henry George's ** Progress and Poverty," and the 
subsequent spread among the town artisans of his conception of rent, 
which changed the current of British economic views in the trade 
union world toward the close of the last century, and largely trans- 
formed the theories and policies of British trade unionism. The 
single tax theory is sometimes referred to as "natural taxation." 
(See Agrarianism.) 

Single Turn. See Shift System. 

Sister Union or Lodge. See Local; Lodge. 

Six -Hour Day. It is maintained by many students of indus- 
trial affairs and by a considerable section of organized labor that, 
under the proper economic organization, all necessary industrial 
work could be accomplished without requiring more than six hours 
of work each day from each worker. With the increasing acceptance 
of the eight-hour day in all civilized coimtries, the six-hour day is 
even now being prominently advocated as a socially desirable and 
ultimately attainable ideal. The six-hour day, in connection with a 
four-shift system, has been forcibly championed by one of the best- 
known of British manufacturers, Lord Leverhulme, as a means of 
increasing the productive capacity of industry. 

[ 440 ] 



Sixteen -Hour Law. A Congressional enactment of March 4, 
1907, applying to all ''persons actually engaged in or connected with 
the movement of any train" in the District of Columbia, or in any 
territory of the United States, or on interstate lines. By this act 
working hours are limited to sixteen a day, with certain provisions 
for REST PERIODS ; but no train-despatcher, telegrapher, or any em- 
ployee who transmits messages or orders by telegraph or telephone 
"shall be required or permitted to be or to remain on duty for a longer 
period than nine hours'* in places continuously operated day and 
night, nor for more than thirteen hours in places operated only during 
the daytime. Overtime in cases of emergency, which is carefully 
defined in the act, may be permitted for four additional hours on not 
more than three days a week. The Interstate Commerce Com- 
mission is charged with the duty of enforcing the act. 

Skilled Worker. One who has passed through a period of 
apprenticeship or industrial training for his trade, and is competent 
to undertake any process and meet any technical requirements con- 
nected with it. Skilled workers, strongly organized in national 
CRAFT UNIONS, composc in largest part the American trade union 
movement. (See Journeyman; Semi-Skilled Worker; Unskilled 
Worker.) 

Slavery. Although representing the most primitive stage in 
labor evolution, the authorized practice of holding human beings in 
forced subjection and bondage really survived serfdom (the second 
stage) by a quarter-century, its final disappearance as a recognized 
social institution being marked by the abolishment of slavery by 
Brazil in 1888. Although nowhere explicitly recognized under the 
law, slavery is still to be found in certain tropical and sub-tropical 
countries; while in its present-day survival, peonage, it exists on a 
considerable scale in South America, Mexico, and the southern sec- 
tion of the United States. (See Servile Labor; Native Labor; 
Wage Slavery.) 

Sliding Scale. An arrangement by which it is agreed in ad- 
vance that wages shall vary in a definite relation to changes in the 
market price of the product. The principle that "prices should rule 
wages" was first adopted in the English iron trades a half century 
ago, and has since been widely introduced in the coal-mining indus- 
try, as well as the iron and steel trades. In the latter trades in this 
country, under the sliding scale system, a rate of wages is agreed 
upon for each position, to be governed by the scale, and then a selling 

[441] 



price for the material is selected as being a fair minimum price while 
that particular rate of wages is paid; a percentage of advance in the 
selling price of the material is then listed as requiring a slight per- 
centage of advance in the wages of the men in the several positions. 
The ratio of advance in wages is thus listed with the advance in ma- 
terial imtil the probable highest figure the material will sell at has 
been reached. A corresponding reduction of wages is agreed to as the 
material recedes in price. But a minimum price is usually fixed as 
representing a stopping point in the decline in wages; and although 
the employer is free to sell his material lower than the minimum, he is 
not permitted to make a further reduction in wages. 

Small Master. See Little Master. 

Smooting. In British labor slang, the practice on the part 
of an individual laborer of working for a second employer after putting 
in a full day's work at his regular employment. This practice, which 
is forbidden by the trade unions, is also known as ** foxing" and 
"grassing." 

Snap Time. An English term, denoting a brief interval for 
refreshments allowed during the daily work period. 

Social Democratic Federation. This, the original British 
society devoted to Marxian socialism, was formed in 1881, under 
the leadership of H. M. Hyndman, who is still prominent in the 
organization. In 19 11 it was temporarily absorbed into the British 
Socialist Party, but in 19 16 it reappeared under the name of the 
National Socialist Party. It has lately resumed its original title. 

Social Democratic Unions. In many of the continental 
European countries, the majority element in the labor movement is 
organized on the political side in parties which use the term "Social 
Democrat ' ' in their titles. The trade unions affiliated in these parties 
are therefore commonly known as "Social Democratic imions." 
Both the political parties and the trade unions of "Social Democrats" 
are strongly socialistic in aims and policies, though their socialism 
is usually of the moderate or right-wing variety. They are opposed 
by both the Christian unions and (generally) the communist 
organizations. 

Social General Strike. See General Strike. 

Social Insurance. A general designation for all forms of 
.insurance which seek to indemnify the working classes for losses 

[442] 



resulting from the hazards of modern industry, and to protect them 
against the extreme effects of poverty. In its commonest forms, 
it consists of sickness, accident, unemplojmient, invalidity, and old 
age insurance, and it includes also the pensioning of dependent 
widows and orphans. In addition, maternity insurance and 
DEATH BENEFITS are usually classed as forms of social insurance. 
While active constructive aid or interference by the State is generally 
regarded as a basic principle of social insurance, a considerable pro- 
portion of such insurance (particularly in the United States) is of 
the ''voluntary mutual" sort — that is to say, it is a function of 
trade unions, fraternal orders, mutual aid societies, establish- 
ment FUNDS, etc. This is the first stage in the development of social 
insurance. The second stage is represented by the "voluntary 
subsidized State" method, under which the private mutual organi- 
zations receive a financial subsidy from some public authority 
(municipal, district, or State), with or without some measure of pub- 
lic control. The third stage, and the one toward which all social 
insurance schemes ultimately aim, is the "compulsory subsidized 
State" method, under which social insurance is a function of the 
State, the obligation to insure being compulsory on the worker's 
part. In nearly all European countries social insurance, in one or 
several of its various departments, is conducted as a State enter- 
prise, usually under what is known as the "contributory plan," 
the fund from which benefits or pensions are paid being formed 
from small weekly contributions of both workers and employers, 
supplemented by State aid. Under all three plans of social insurance, 
the pa5nnent of benefits is usually in periodical installments, although 
in some forms the ' ' lump-sum ' ' plan of payment is followed. Medical 
aid and supplies are often provided, in addition to the cash payments. 
In the United States, the only form of State insurance that has been 
generally adopted is workmen's compensation, or insurance against 
industrial accidents. Social insurance is sometimes referred to as 
"workmen's insurance" and "industrial insurance," although the 
latter term is more commonly used to denote a special form of com- 
mercial insurance which is described under its proper heading in 
the present volume. (See Mutual Insurance; National In- 
surance Act; Soc;al Insurance in Russia; Massachusetts 
Savings Bank Insurance and Pension System; Sickness Insur- 
ance; Unemployment Insurance; Old Age Insurance; Invalid- 
ity Insurance; Widows' and Orphans' Insurance; Mothers' 
Pensions; Berufsgennossenschaften; Group Insurance; Wait- 
ing Period; Malingering.) 

[443I 



Social Insurance in Russia. Until the revolution of 191 7, 
Russia was perhaps the most backward country in Europe in the mat- 
ter of SOCIAL INSURANCE. While no very definite information is 
available on the subject, the So\4et government seems to have estab- 
lished the principle of compulson,^ State insurance for a 1 workers 
without distinction of sex, nationality, or occupation, provided 
they earn their living by their o\\ti labor and do not exploit the labor 
of others. Insurance is extended to all forms of incapacitation, 
whether permanent or temporar^^ and from whatever cause — age 
(youth or old age), illness, accident, maternity, or involuntary im- 
emplo^Tnent. Death benefits are also included. For involimtary 
unemplo}'ment or complete temporary disability, a subsidy equal to 
the full remuneration fixed for the worker's particular group and 
category is paid. In case of partial disability, the amount paid varies 
according to the degree of disability. Maternity subsidies are paid 
for eight weeks before and eight weeks after the birth of a child. 
Pensions for total disability, or invalidity, vary in amount according 
to the average wages of the trade in the locality concerned, but 
may be increased in special cases. A factor}^ worker on reaching the 
age of fifty automatically receives a pension ; workers in less exhaust- 
ing occupations receive pensions at sixty. All of these subsidies are 
paid out of special local funds, the central management of which is 
vested in an appointed body called the All-Russian Insurance Centre. 

Social Revolution. As used by most social reformers, this 
term denotes the change from the present economic system to that 
of the SOCIALIZED State or the socialist commonwealth. It does 
not necessarily imply any idea of violence, but merely fundamental 
reversal or reconstruction of the existing order, effected by political 
and educational methods. (See Socialism.) 

Social Secretary. See Welfare Supervision. 

Social Union. A form of English works organization, made 
up of and managed entirely -by the workers of a sing e establishment, 
and devoted to p-urely "social" purposes. Through an elected com- 
mittee, the social union arranges for games, recreations, study- 
circles, picnics, and the like. (See Welfare Committee.) 

Socialdemokratiska Arbetare-Partiet (Swedish Social Demo- 
cratic Labor Party). See Landsorganisation i Sverge. 

Socialdemokratiske Forbund (Danish Social Democratic 
Federation). See De Samvirkende Fagforbund i Danmark. 

[444] 



Socialism. Derived from the Latin word socius, meaning 
**a comrade." There are almost as many definitions of socialism as 
there are writers on the subject. At the outset, however, it should be 
emphasized that the term denotes a principle of social action rather 
than any elaborately formulated plan of society. Like everything 
else that is vital, says Bertrand Russell, "it is rather a tendency 
than a strictly definable body of doctrine. A definition of socialism 
is sure either to include some views which many would regard as not 
socialistic, or to exclude others which claim to be included. But I 
think we shall come nearest to the essence of socialism by defining 
it as the advocacy of communal ownership of land and capital." 
According to Morris Hillquit, "socialism advocates the transfer of 
ownership in the social tools of production — the land, factories, ma- 
chinery, railroads, mines, etc. — from the individual capitalists to 
the people, to be operated for the benefit of all." Finally, to quote 
an English authority, Thomas Kirkup, the cardinal principle of social- 
ism is that industry, instead of being carried on as at present "by 
private capitalists served by wage labor, must in the future be con- 
ducted by associated or cooperating workmen jointly owning the 
means of production." It is this central fact of communal ownership 
of the tools or means of production that must be kept continually in 
the mental foreground by all who really wish to imderstand the actual 
significance of socialism. The chief divergences between the various 
schools of socialism relate rather to method and degree than to funda- 
mental basis. "Some socialists," according to Bertrand Russell, 
"expect communal ownership to arrive suddenly and completely by 
a catastrophic revolution, while others expect it to come gradually, 
first in one industry, then in another. Some insist upon the neces- 
sity of completeness in the acquisition of land and capital by the 
public, while others would be content to see lingering islands of pri- 
vate ownership, provided they were not too extensive or powerful. 
What all forms have in common is democracy and the abolition, 
virtual or complete, of the present capitalistic system." The dis- 
tinction between socialism, anarchism, and syndicalism, as well as 
between some of the leading schools of socialism, turns largely upon 
the form of democracy in the future social commonwealth. To quote 
Mr. Russell again: "Orthodox socialists are content with parlia- 
mentary democracy in the sphere of government, holding that the 
evils apparent in this form of constitution at present would disappear 
with the disappearance of capitalism. Anarchists and syndicalists, 
on the other hand, object to the whole parliamentary machinery, 
and aim at a different method of regulating the political affairs of the 

[ 445 ] 



community. But all alike are democratic in the sense that they aim 
at abolishing every kind of privilege and every kind of artificial in- 
equality: all alike are champions of the wage-earner in existing so- 
ciety. All three regard capital and the wage system as a means of 
exploiting the laborer in the interests of the possessing classes, and 
hold that communal ownership, in one form or another, is the only 
means of bringing freedom to the producers." Socialism, commun- 
ism, and anarchism are thus briefly differentiated by Professor R. T. 
Ely: ''Socialism holds that justice in the distribution of the good 
things of life is to be attained in common and systematic production 
in a re-created State, where men shall receive the means of enjoyment 
in proportion to the service they have rendered to society. Commu- 
nism presupposes a like transformation, but seeks justice in equality ; 
while anarchism would abolish all existing compulsory institutions, 
and would let men freely build such social structures as inclination 
and uncontrolled desire might prompt." The socialist movement, 
long a slowly swelling tide, has now become a huge and ttubulent 
rapids which has largely engulfed the labor movement in many 
countries. It is a movement that changes swiftly from day to day — 
one in which exact classification, identification, and differentiation 
are virtually impossible under the plan of such a book as this. (For 
principal references to socialism, see Scientific Socialism; State 
Socialism; Guild Socialism; Bolshevism; Christian Socialism; 
Utopian Socialism; Collectivism; Owenism; Saint-Simonism; 
Fourierism; Mutualism; Municipal Socialism; Socialization; 
Internationale ; together with the various cross references under 
these headings.) 

Socialism of Institutions. The name given by a French 
writer, H. Lagardelle, to syndicalism. The term expresses the fun- 
damental character of that philosophy, as implying the development 
by the working-class of its own social institutions, to supplant those 
now existing. 

Socialism of the Chair. See Socialists of the Chair. 

Socialist Commonwealth. A name sometimes given to the 
form of society which socialism has for its goal — one in which, ac- 
cording to the literal meaning of the word, all social "wealth" would 
be held in "common," for the benefit of the commimity as a whole. 
(See Cooperative Commonwealth; Labor Checks; Social Revo- 
lution.) 

Socialist Internationale. See Internationale. 

[446] 



Socialist Labor Party of Great Britain. Organized in 1903, 
as a secession movement of left-wing elements from the Social 
Democratic Federation. It advocates industrial unionism of 
a revolutionary kind, excludes from membership all trade union 
officials and members of other socialist organizations, and refuses to 
affiliate with the British Labor Party. The Party played a prom- 
inent part in the shop steward movement during the war. 

Socialist Labor Party of North America. Organized in 
1877 as the Workingmen's Party of America, this body was for 
nearly a quarter-century the leading socialist organization of America. 
Its main efforts have been to carry socialism to the workers in labor 
unions. In 1898 the Party declared war on the American Federa- 
tion OP Labor. This act antagonized many workers against social- 
ism for years; it also caused the Party's most influential elements 
to withdraw, later to form a separate organization — the Socialist 
Party of America. Since then the Socialist Labor Party has steadily 
declined, and today it has little but historical significance. It has 
always stood strongly for industrial unionism. (See Industrial 
Workers of the World.) 

Socialist Party of America. This, the leading American 
socialist organization, was launched in 1901, largely as a secession 
movement from the Socialist Labor Party of North America. 
It is devoted to a programme of immediate political issues as well 
as of ultimate economic reforms, and places its own candidates in 
the field at all important municipal, state, and national elections. 
Branches of the Party are now established in several hundred 
American cities and towns; these branches are affiliated in local, 
state, and "language" federations. A national executive committee 
of seven members is in charge of the routine management, all impor- 
tant matters of policy being decided by the annual convention. In 
19 14 the Party condemned the European war, extending sympathy 
to the workers in all belligerent countries. In April, 19 17, at an 
emergency convention held in St. Louis, it adopted the famous 
**St. Louis platform" in opposition to American participation in 
the war and to conscription. A ntimber of pro-war members then 
withdrew, and later formed the American Social Democratic 
League. In 19 19 the more radical groups within the party seceded 
and organized the American Communist Party and the Communist 
Labor Party of North America. This latter body existed but a few 
months; it now forms the principal element in the United Communist 
Party. With these more radical elements eliminated, the Socialist 

[447] 



Party now represents the moderate or constitutional wing of Amer- 
ican socialism. It polled nearly one million votes in the Presidential 
election of 1920, but has only about 17,000 dues-paying members. 

Socialist Party of Canada. See Canadian Labor Organi- 
zations. 

Socialists of the Chair. In 187 1 a German writer applied 
the term Katheder Sozialister (academic socialists or socialists of the 
chair) to certain professors of political economy with mild socialistic 
leanings. The term soon passed into other countries as a designation 
for those who favor a moderate expansion of the paternalistic State, 
with the least possible disturbance to existing institutions. Their 
philosophy, which is at best a diluted form of State socialism, is 
usually called "academic socialism" or "professorial socialism." 

Socialization. As the central ideal or objective of the moderate 
socialist-labor groups in all countries, the meaning and implications 
of socialization are well expressed in the following statement, forming 
part of a resolution adopted at the Geneva (1920) Congress of the 
second Internationale: "By Socialization we understand the 
transformation from ownership and control by capitalists to owner- 
ship and control by the community of all the industries and services 
essential for the satisfaction of the people's needs: the substitution, 
for the wasteful production and distribution with the sole object of 
private profit, of efficient production and economical distribution, 
with the object of the greatest possible utility; the transformation, 
also, from the economic servitude of the great mass of the actual 
producers under private ownership, to a general participation in 
management by the persons engaged in the work. ... In a community 
of highly developed economic life, with an extensive population largely 
aggregated in urban centres. Socialization takes three main forms — 
namely, national, mimicipal, and cooperative. For instance, what- 
ever may be provided for the administration of agriculture, the 
ownership of land should be national, pro\dsion being made for the 
maintenance and security of peasant cultivators, wherever such 
exist. Other industries of supreme national importance, such as 
the transport system, the generation of electricity, and mines, 
should also be national. But the management of a large number of 
industries and aervices will be in the hands of the municipalities and 
other local authorities, and federations of these, not only the pro- 
vision of water and gas and the distribution of electricity, but also, 
in some countries, the provision of food, clothing, and housing. The 

[448] 



production and distribution of household supplies of every kind 
will form, for the most part, the sphere of the consumers* cooperative 
societies. ... A principle of the greatest importance in Socialization 
is that control must be separated from administration. The control 
will be exercised by the popularly elected national assembly. The 
organs of administration in each industry or service must be entirely 
separate and distinct from those of the political government." (See 
Nationalization; Socialized State.) 

Socialized State. One in which the socialization of industry 
has been accomplished, under a socialistic regime. (See Socialist 
Commonwealth; Servile State; Social Revolution.) 

Societa di Lavoro. Cooperative labor societies in Italy, which 
perform public and private work under contract. They are numerous 
and of considerable importance, including many kinds of workmen, 
and have executed large public works both in Italy and in foreign 
countries. The societa di lavoro are financed by friendly societies, 
people*s banks, private savings banks, etc. Many of them accumu- 
late funds from which they pay old age pensions, sick and invalidity 
benefits, etc., to their members. (See Cooperative Employment.) 

Societa di Mutuo Soccorso. See Mutual Aid Societies. 

Societes Compagnonniques. Secret trade unions which 
flourished in France during the period, ending in 1884, when open 
associations of industrial workers were prohibited by law. They 
rendered services to their members equal and sometimes superior 
to the modern authorized trade organizations. 

Societes de Secours Mutuels. See Mutual Aid Societies. 

Society. In Great Britain, trade unions are very generally 
known as "societies" or ** trade societies." In this sense the word 
is used in various connections — a ** society man" is a union member, 
a "society house" is an establishment where union conditions pre- 
vail, "society rules" are union rules, and so forth. 

Soldier's Penny. See Sou du Soldat. 

Soldiering. In labor parlance, working slowly, half-heartedly, 
or in an inefiicient way. Unlike ca' canny and other similar forms 
of sabotage, "soldiering" generally denotes mere individual laziness 
or slowness, expressing unconscious dissatisfaction rather than ^i^y 
deliberate policy on the worker's part. 

[449I 



Solidarity. A term much used among the working classes, 
as expressive of a common fellowship and common interests, aims, 
and action. It denotes the condition of a social or economic group 
in which the individuals are in practical effect "members one of 
another," with common interests and aims in the fundamental 
things of life. The familiar labor mottoes, "Each for all and all for 
each" and "An injury to one is an injury to all," summarize the 
spirit of solidarity. (See Class Consciousness.) 

Sou du Soldat (Soldier's Penny). In France, a common trade 

union benefit in the form of a small quarterly sum (generally five 
francs) paid to unionists while they are performing their compulsory 
military service. While ostensibly intended to keep the conscript 
attached to his trade union, the sou du soldat has become a powerful 
weapon of anti-militarism. 

South African Council of Organized Workers. See South 
African Labor Movement. 

South African Industrial Federation. A federation of the 

principal trade unions of the Transvaal. As one of its main activities, 
the Federation has established a chain of cooperative stores and has 
organized the South African Industrial Federation Cooperative 
Development Co., which is authorized to engage in any business or 
transaction, as cooperative producers, manufacturers, and dis- 
tributors, that may seem to the company directly or indirectly con- 
ducive to its interests. (See South African Labor Movement.) 

South African Labor Movement. The workers of South 
Africa are divided into two main groups: (i) A minority of skilled 
white workers, relatively well paid and organized; and (2) a large 
colored majority, very badly paid and for the most part unorganized. 
The white craftsmen exclude colored labor from the skilled trades 
and are indifferent if not hostile to organization efforts on the part 
of colored workers. Trade unionism in South Africa was estimated 
in 1920 to cover about 80,000 members, organization being strongest 
in the mining, building, and engineering trades. The South African 
Industrial Federation is the principal national federation. In 
1920 a Council of Organized Workers was formed, which unites the 
professional and technical workers. Colored labor unions have begun 
to develop under conditions of great difficulty, and in July, 1920, 
at a convention in Bloemfontein, it was decided to form a Non- 
European Workers' Federation. The poHtical interests of South 
African white labor are principally represented by the South African 
Labor Party, established in 1909. 

[450] 



South African Labor Party. See South African Labor 
Movement. 

Southwestern District. See Interstate Joint Conferences 
IN THE Coal-Mining Industry. 

Sovereigns of Industry. An American working-class organ- 
ization, representing mainly the cooperative movement, which existed 
from 1874 to 1878. It was a secret order, with a system of national, 
state, and subordinate councils. It absorbed many independent 
labor organizations of its time, and attained a membership of about 
40,000 — ^mostly in the New England states. (See Trade Union 
Cooperation.) 

Soviet System or Sovietism. "Soviet" is a Russian word 
meaning ''council." The soviet idea in Russia dates back to the 
revolution of 1905, when it was adopted on a small scale by revolu- 
tionary industrial groups in Petrograd ; but it was not until after the 
revolution of March, 191 7, that it assimied any widespread propor- 
tions. The Soviets then formed in the cities were somewhat similar 
in character to the city central labor bodies in this country. They 
were made up of delegates from trades, factory committees, and pro- 
fessional and industrial groups, thus differing from the local political 
government, where representation is based on geographical units. 
In the rural districts, where an overwhelming majority of the popu- 
lation consisted of peasants, representation was more likely to be 
based on residence. Through a system of local, district, and national 
organization, the soviet is now the organ of direct proportional repre- 
sentation in Russia. Its distinctive and fundamental feature is repre- 
sentation for the individual on the basis of occupation rather than on 
residence, and for groups on the basis of industries rather than on 
territorial areas. Thus, what is commonly called "sovietism" is in 
essence simply a governmental system based on the principle of 
economic rather than geographical representation. It is interesting 
to note that the germ of the soviet idea, as Lenin and other Russian 
leaders have acknowledged was formulated many years ago by an 
American — Daniel De Leon, one of the founders of the original 
Industrial Workers of the World. (See Bolshevism; Bom- 
BAcci Plan.) 

Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei in Deutschosterreich. 

See Gewerkschaftskommission Deutschosterreichs. 

Spanish General Confederation of Labor. See Confeder- 
AcioN General del Trabajo. 

[451] 



Spanish General Union of Workers. See Union General 

DE TrABAJADORES. 

Spanish Labor Movement. Although a fairly strong Spanish 
section of the first Internationale was constituted in 1870, labor 
organization in Spain had not up to the beginning of the recent war 
progressed to a point where it played an effective part in the social 
and economic life of the country. But organization has increased at 
a tremendous rate during the past few years, and Spain is now in 
many respects the chief storm centre of the European labor move- 
ment. The doctrines of anarchism and syndicalism have always 
been potent among a considerable section of Spanish workers, and 
revolutionary syndicalism is today the dominant force in the prin- 
cipal industrial region — the province of Catalonia, with Barcelona 
as its centre. Moderate labor and socialist activities centre around 
Madrid. Organized labor in Spain is represented by three main 
bodies or groups: (i) The ConfederaciOn General del Trabajo, 
devoted to revolutionary syndicalism; (2) the Union General de 
Trabajadores, until recently moderate and socialistic in policy; 
and (3) the Sindicatos CatoV.cos, or Catholic unions, formed largely 
for the purpose of combating socialism, but exerting no very marked 
influence. The political interests of the socialist labor elements are 
served by the Partido Socialista Ohrero (Socialist Labor Party), 
which was founded in 1879. The World War gave a marked impetus 
to Spanish labor aspirations for relief from almost semi-feudal con- 
ditions, and since the armistice of 19 18 an industrial war of large pro- 
portions has rapidly developed in Spain. In this war the govern- 
ment has ranged itself largely on the side of the employers; the 
workers' constitutional guarantees have been suspended, and the 
violence of the military juntas has been met \\dth violence on the 
part of the workers. The acute need for a united labor front in oppo- 
sition to the forces arrayed against them led to a "pact of unity" 
between the sjmdicalist Confederacion General del Trabajo and the 
socialist Union General de Trabajadores in September, 1920. Three 
months later, however, this pact was denounced by the C. G. T., 
which accused the U. G. T. of having failed to cooperate. Since that 
time, strikes, lockouts, rioting, assassinations, government deporta- 
tions, etc., continue to mark the Spanish industrial conflict, which 
has assumed the proportions of civil war. 

Spartacans. An ultra radical section of the German working- 
class socialists or communists, led originally by Karl Liebknecht, 
Rosa Luxemburg, Otto Riihle, and others, and aiming at the estab- 

[452] 



lishment of an international socialist republic. The name of their 
organization, the German Spartacus League, had its origin in a 
series of anti-government political letters signed "Spartacus" in 
memory of the classical hero of that name. The Spartacans were 
prominent in fomenting the strikes and mutinies which led up to the 
German revolution of November, 191 8. Soon after that event they 
withdrew from the "independent" socialist organization, of which 
they had formed a section. Since early in 19 19 they have been sup- 
pressed with great severity by the "majority" socialistic government, 
which they hold responsible for the murder of their leaders, Liel>- 
knecht and Rosa Luxemburg, in 19 19. They are now largely merged 
in the German Communist Party. Incorrect variants of the name 
"Spartacan" are numerous, such as Spartacist, Sparticist, Sparta- 
cide, and Sparticide. 

Special Agents. See Under-Cover Men. 

Special Assessments. In addition to their regular sources 
of revenue through charter fees and a periodic per capita tax, 
nearly all national labor organizations resort at times to a special 
assessment, levied on the local unions in proportion to their member- 
ship — occasionally in the form of a percentage on wages. Power to levy 
special assessments in emergencies is usually given to the general 
executive board, though it is sometimes reserved to the member- 
ship at large, acting through the referendum. In the greater nimiber 
of cases special assessments are levied in support of strikes, though 
sometimes they are used for other purposes — such as the provision 
of benefit funds, etc. The locals of some national unions may levy 
special assessments on the local membership for any purpose except 
support of an unauthorized strike. (See Stamp Receipt System; 
Check-Off System.) 

Special Contract Operatives. See Under-Cover Men. 

Special Defense Organizers. In some national and inter- 
national trade unions these are travelling officials appointed by the 
executive board for work in localities where the interests of the union 
are threatened. They are sent into towns, cities, or states where the 
tmion is confronted with antagonistic legislation, strikes, or serious 
trouble of any sort. (See Deputy System.) 

Special Deputies. See Armed Guards. 
Special Duty Men. See Under-Cover Men. 
Special Police. See Armed Guards. 
30 I 453 ] 



specialization. In an industrial sense, this term commonly 
denotes any one of three different things: (i) The separation of in- 
dustry as a whole into particular crafts or occupations, each with its 
own set of workers expert in a single occupation or craft; (2) the 
separation of the work of a single industrial plant or process into a 
number of component operations, with a different set of workers for 
each operation; and (3) the localization or concentration of particu- 
lar classes or kinds of industry within definite geographical areas. 
(See Division of Labor; Territorial Division of Labor.) 

Speed -Up System. Because of its effort to secure maximum 
production on the part of the individual worker, with a minimum 
expenditure of time, scientific management is often thus designated. 

Speeder. See Speeding Up. 

Speeding Up. The practice, on the part of employers, o^ 
increasing the pace of industrial production beyond its normal or 
natural limits, and of exacting the utmost possible output from their 
employees. Aside from direct and brutal "driving," which is now 
comparatively rare, speeding up is accomplished in various ways — 
as for example, by hiring especially rapid or efficient workers (vari- 
ously known as "rushers," "pacers," "swifts," "speeders," "bell 
horses," "pace-makers," "leaders," "pushers," etc.) who often 
receive a secret bonus for setting a fast rate of work which the other 
workers must keep up with under fear of being discharged; by 
increasing the speed of machines which the workers must operate; 
by increasing the size of machines; by requiring a worker to attend 
two or more machines; by efficiency payments to workers who 
exceed a standard rate of production, as under the various forms of 
scientific management; and by fines levied against workers who 
fall below a specified standard. The piece work system of wage 
payment is a partial protection to the worker against "speeding up," 
but by no means a complete protection. In that case, as under the 
plan of efficiency payments, the practice is more largely voluntary 
on the worker's part; but the danger of overstrain is not materially 
lessened, and a new evil in the form of price cutting becomes a 
factor in the situation. The ground upon which workers most com- 
monly defend limitation of output is the need of protecting them- 
selves from excessive and injurious exertion — in other words, from 
"speeding up." The stress and strain of work at high pressure is 
declared to have reached a point in some trades which noticeably 
shortens the working life of the laborer. In this connection, it should 

[454] 



be remembered that a person's industrial life may be shortened not 
only by hastening his absolute deterioration, but also by raising the 
standard of efficiency. As the pace increases the number of workers 
that can maintain it diminishes. Workers a little past the prime of 
life, who might otherwise be able to do effective work for years, find 
themselves forced out of the industrial field because they are no 
longer capable of the intense application and the rapidity of move- 
ment which existing standards require. The terms "driving" and 
"over-driving" are often used in the same sense as "speeding up." 
(See Fatigue; Speed-Up System.) 

Spittoon Philosophers. This derogatory nickname for mem- 
bers of the I. W. W. has reference to their fondness for discussing 
social and economic matters, many of them being keen and widely- 
read students of the literature in this field. 

Split -Fee System. One of the most pernicious practices of 
certain private employment bureaus is the form of collusion with 
foremen or superintendents commonly known as the "split-fee 
system." Under this plan, the foreman agrees to hire men of a cer- 
tain employment agent on condition that one-fourth or one-half 
of every fee collected from men whom he hires be given to him. 
This leads the foreman to discharge men constantly in order to have 
more men hired through the agent and more fees collected. (See 
Three-Gang Method.) 

Split Shift, Split Turn, or Split Trick. A working period 
that is divided or broken into two parts, with a considerable non- 
working period in between. Thus, a man putting in eight hours 
daily on a "split shift" might work for two hours in the late forenoon 
and six hours in the evening. The most common purpose of a " split 
shift" is to have extra workers on hand during certain hours of the 
day when the pressure of work is greatest. The disadvantages of 
such a system to the workers themselves will of course be obvious. 
(See Shift System.) 

Spontaneous Strike. A sudden stoppage of work, usually in 
a single shop or establishment, undertaken without consultation 
with local or national trade union officials. The workers may be 
acting in sympathy with other workers on strike, or their action may 
be due to immediate resentment of some enforcement of discipline 
on the employer's part. A nimiber of such strikes, however, are of 
the "engineered" variety; the employer, knowing or suspecting 
that an organized fight is imminent, will decide to goad his workers 
into premature and ill-considered action, and so defeat them. 

[455] 



spotter System. In labor parlance, the method or plan of 
keeping constant secret watch over the actions and attitude of em- 
ployees, by means of company spies or "spotters." This system is 
chiefly practiced by public utility corporations — railways, telegraph 
and street-car companies, etc. — which employ large numbers of work- 
ers who cannot, from the nature of their work, be kept under the sort 
of company surveillance that is possible in an ordinary industrial 
establishment. 

Spy in Industry. See Espionage in Industry; Labor De- 
tective Agencies; Under-Cover Men; Agent Provocateur; 
Spotter System. 

Stab Work. Time work, as distinguished from piece work, 
is often so called in the British printing trades. "Stab" is an ab- 
breviation of "establishment" — time wages being known as "estab- 
lishment wages" when they were first introduced among the printers 
early in the 19th century. 

Stamp Receipt System. A plan of collecting union revenues 
sometimes adopted by national or international unions. According 
to this plan, each local, in return for the simis remitted to the na- 
tional treasiuy, receives from the general treasurer or secretary an 
equal amount in stamp receipts. These stamp receipts are affixed 
to the members' books upon the payment of initiation fees, weekly 
or monthly membership dues, and special assessments, and no 
member is considered in good standing unless he can show, for the 
period covered, the requisite number of stamps properly dated and 
cancelled. Since no other form of receipt is recognized by the na- 
tional union and remittances must accompany orders for stamps, 
the locals have little opportunity to evade their payments. To 
prevent fraud, the color of the stamp is often changed by the presi- 
dent several times a year, at irregular intervals. Other unions which 
have not uniform dues, but whose national treasuries are supported 
in the usual way by a per capita tax, issue stamps for the pajmaents 
to the national treasury only. 

Standard Agreement. A form of trade agreement that has 
been adopted or accepted by employers and workers as the standard 
for a particular trade or industry — ^local, district, or national in extent 
' — and to which all future agreements in the same trade or industry 
must conform, as long as the standard agreement remains in force. 

Standard Family. See Family Budget. 
Standard of Comfort. See Standaiud of Living. 

[456I 



Standard of Living. As far as this term is capable of exact 
definition, it may be said to consist in *'the amount of necessaries, 
comforts, and luxuries which any person or class is accustomed to 
enjoy and to insist upon having." Some writers make the "standard 
of living" synonymous with a "standard of comfort" — as for ex- 
ample, Professor Charles J. Bullock, who says: "Each class of people 
in any society is accustomed to enjoy a greater or less amount of 
the comforts or luxuries of life. The amount of comforts or luxuries 
customarily enjoyed by any class of men forms the ' standard of liv- 
ing' of that class." In any case it seems an almost universal rule that 
the higher the existing standard the greater is the persistence shown, 
not only in maintaining that standard, but in endeavoring to reach 
a still higher one, and this fact has a very powerful influence upon 
the determination of wages. In his "Standard of Living among the 
Industrial People of America," F. H. Streightoff says: "A clear 
understanding of what the standard of living is permits some appre- 
ciation of its significance. In the first place, unless the standard 
includes adequate food, clothing, and shelter, health will inevitably 
suffer and the race will degenerate physically. If, on the contrary, 
men obtain a proper satisfaction of these fundamental wants, not 
only will health be preserved and improved, but a foundation will 
be laid for intellectual progress. A step farther may be taken along 
this line: unless they believe that their descendants will be able 
to maintain the parental standard, men will, if thoughtful, refuse to 
become fathers. Again, if women would rather dress showily than 
enjoy homes of their own, married or unmarried, they will refuse to 
assimie the burden of motherhood. Thus, in two distinct ways, the 
standard of living tends to determine population. By this limiting 
of propagation, the standard of living limits the number of wage- 
workers, and so, if high enough, it can change the ratio of supply 
to demand for labor and thus raise compensation. In a much more 
simple and direct way, however, the desire for a higher standard 
of living decides the minimimi pay demanded by trade unions and 
operates to increase earnings. More satisfactions will breed new 
wants, yet higher wages will be sought, and so the process will con- 
tinue. In this way the 'ideal' standard of living is the key to the 
material progress of the industrial classes." A distinction is some- 
times made between "standard of living," and "scale of living," 
the former phrase denoting the way one wishes or should like to live, 
and the latter the way one really does live. (See American Stand- 
ard OF Living; Family Budget; Cost of Living; Conventional 
Necessities; Steward's Theory of Wages.) 

l4S7] 



Standard Rate. This term is commonly used in designation 
of a principle which is practically universal among trade unions — 
namely, the insistence on pajmient of wages according to some definite 
standard, unifoiTti in its application. The standard rate is the recog- 
nized scale of wages in a particular industry, established by col- 
lective BARGAINING. In a larger sense, it is a minimum rate of re- 
muneration below which no worker shall be paid. It is not a maxi- 
mum, for in many cases higher wages are paid to specially skilled 
workmen, sometimes by express agreement between an employer 
and a trade union. Obviously, therefore, the standard rate does not 
(as is often charged) reduce all workers to the level of the most in- 
efficient or lazy; the principle involved is merely that of equal pay 
for equal effort, which is plainly consistent with quite unequal 
earnings even for workers engaged in the same task. **It is true that 
there is a widespread objection to the piece work system. Even 
unions whose members work under it do not always approve of it. 
But this is because it is felt to interfere with the real final purpose 
of the organization — the maintenance and the increase of the rate of 
pay per unit of output. Uniformity of pay per unit, desirable as it 
is in itself, is chiefly important as a means of securing higher rates of 
pay. If, under the circumstances of a given trade, the rate per unit 
of output seems more effectively protected by the time system than 
by the piece-price system, the time system will be preferred; and the 
uniformity of the rate per unit must be protected under it by such 
means as are available. ... In a few exceptional cases the rigid en- 
forcement of the MINIMUM WAGE is Waived. This is done oftenest 
for members whose hands have lost their cunning by reason of ad- 
vancing years. Some unions give special consideration to the cases 
of such men, when they request it, and authorize them to accept 
special wage rates lower than the regular minimum. This is very 
rarely done, however, for any other reason than age." (See Common 
Rule; Normal Day; Limitation of Output: Wage Agreements 
IN Germany; Exempt Cards.) 

Standpatter. See Reactionary. 

Starts. In anthracite coal-mining each employee as he enters 
a mine is checked on the company records as having made a "start" 
to work. At the end of a week or a month he has made so many 
"starts" — i.e., he has put in so many working days at the mine. 
Thus, the term "starts," in connection with coal-mining, is practically 
synonymous with "working days." 

State Capitalism. See State Socialism. 

[458] 



State Central Body. See Central Body. 

State Constabulary or State Police. In those states which 
maintainmounted bodies of armed men for special police duty through- 
out the state, the conduct of these bodies in connection with strikes 
and other industrial disturbances has been frequently and seriously 
criticized. The Federal Commission on Industrial Relations 
devoted 'a great deal of attention to the question of a state constabu- 
lary as a method of policing industry. Extensive investigations of 
the organization, personnel, and activities of the Pennsylvania State 
Constabulary were made and a number of witnesses were heard at 
length. The findings with regard to this particular police organiza- 
tion may be briefly stated: *'It is an extremely efficient force for 
crushing strikes, but it is not successful in preventing violence in 
connection with strikes, in maintaining the legal and civil rights of 
the parties to the dispute, nor in protecting the public. On the con- 
trary, violence seems to increase rather than diminish when the 
constabulary is brought into an industrial dispute; the legal and 
civil rights of the workers have on numerous occasions been violated 
by the constabulary ; and citizens not in any way connected with the 
dispute and innocent of any interference with the constabulary have 
been brutally treated, and in one case shot down by members of the 
constabulary, who have escaped punishment for their acts. . . . 
There are certain features of the State police system, however, 
which seem to be preferable to the present haphazard methods of 
policing strikes. ... If these desirable features could be combined with 
other features which would insure their impartiality during industrial 
disputes, and raise their ideals from the present militaristic basis to 
the police basis of preserving the peace and protecting the rights 
of both parties and the public, the establishment of State police sys- 
tems for use in connection with industrial disputes might be recom- 
mended." (See Inter-Church Steel Report.) 

State Federation of Labor. A delegate organization repre- 
senting the various labor bodies in a given state — chiefly those 
affiliated directly or indirectly with the American Federation of 
Labor. It has no arbitrary powers over its constituent bodies, but 
exists for active political effort, mutual discussion, education, propa- 
ganda, investigation, and joint action in state matters affecting cr 
involving the interests of organized labor — chiefly in connection with 
state legislative affairs. As a typical example, the objects of the 
Illinois State Federation of Labor are, according to its constitution, 
"the securing of legislation in the interests of organized labor, to 

[ 459 ] 



promote the use of the union label and the purchase of union label 
goods, to make more effective legally declared boycotts and, in 
general, to promote the work of labor organizations." Each consti- 
tuent organization within the state is entitled to representation in 
the state federation on the basis of one delegate for every hundred 
members or major fraction thereof. Organizations of less than one 
hundred members are entitled to one delegate, while all city cen- 
trals send five delegates each. The state federation is governed 
by an annual convention, at which officers are chosen who form the 
executive council, a body that carries on the administrative work of 
the federation subject to the convention's orders and approval. 
State federations of labor are directly represented in the annual 
conventions of the A. F. of L. (See Central Body.) 

State Industrial Commission. As established in several 
states of the union — notably Wisconsin, New York, Ohio, and 
Pennsylvania — this is a permanent expert body, appointed usually 
by the governor of the state, which administers the state workmen's 
compensation act, investigates and adjusts industrial disputes, 
sees to the enforcement of hour laws and wage laws, superintends 
public EMPLOYMENT BUREAUS, supervises FACTORY INSPECTION, and 
performs various other duties in connection with the industrial 
welfare of the state. For each branch of the industrial commission's 
work, the state legislature generally lays down the broad policy and 
standard, and after investigations and public hearings the Com- 
mission makes specific applications of the law by means of admin- 
istrative ORDERS or rules which have generally the binding force of 
legislative statutes. The Commission "has its staff of investigators 
and inspectors who are continually furnishing new information, and 
it can change its rules as needed. It has its representatives of em- 
ployers and employees who testify to the actual conditions that need 
remedying and actual workings of the rules already adopted. It 
can make classifications and issue different rules for different condi- 
tions, and can change its rules when the conditions change or when 
it discovers new and more effective remedies." In Professor Com- 
mons's characterization, the state industrial commission is "a fourth 
branch of government combining, but not usurping, the work of the 
three other branches. It is a legislature continually in session, yet 
the power of legislation is not delegated. It is an executive sharing 
with the governor the enforcement of laws, but also enforcing 
its own orders. It is a court deciding cases that the judiciary 
formerly decided, but not assimiing the authority of the courts." 

[460] 



(See Industrial Safety Laws; Safety Codes; Industrial 
Counsellors.) 

State Insurance. See Soc al Insurance. 

State Insurance Funds. See Workmen's Compensation. 

State Socialism. A paternalistic school of economic and politi- 
cal thought, originating in modem Gennany, which demands State 
interference in industry to the end of juster distribution of wealth 
and better conditions for the workers. It does not contemplate any 
radical change in the worker's economic status, but insists upon 
State administration of those industries or services that are of a 
fundamental and universal character — such as banking, housing, 
insurance, railroads supplying of heat, light, water, food, etc. On 
the legislative side, it would have the State adjust the relations be- 
tween masters and workers. Under pressure of necessity, State 
socialism was adopted in large measure by nearly every govern- 
ment during the recent war. Advocates of scientific socialism 
attack State socialism as a mere sop and compromise, designed to 
postpone or defeat complete economic freedom; "State capitalism," 
they maintain, would be a more fitting designation for such a system. 
State socialism is sometimes called "authoritarian socialism" — ^as 
distinguished from "voluntary socialism," or those forms of co- 
operative economic action not controlled by a highly centralized 
authority. (See Socialism; Socialists of the Chair; Collectiv- 
ism; Paternalism; Benevolent Feudalism; Guild Socialism; 
Bureaucracy.) 

State Use System of Convict Labor. This system is similar 
to the public account system in all respects except that the products 
of the convicts' labor, manufactured from raw materials purchased 
by the institutions and under the sole direction of prison officials, or 
produced in agricultural or other employments, are used in penal, 
reformatory, or other public institutions, instead of being sold to the 
general public. (See Convict Labor Systems; Prison Labor.) 

Statement. See Price List. 

Station Gang. See Station System. 

Station System, Station -Work System, Station -Contract 
System. These terms refer to a method of sub-contracting or 
cooperative piece work often followed in railway construction 
work. A certain section of the work, consisting of so many yards 

[ 461 ] 



along the right of way (usually from one " sun^ey station " to another), 
is let out by the construction company handling the whole job to a 
group of perhaps a dozen men, called a "stat on gang." This group 
is paid at piece work rates on the basis of their collective labor (so 
many cubic yards of grading, so many linear feet of tunnel excava- 
tion, etc.), and the group earnings are then divided among the individ- 
ual members. Sometimes, however, the sub-contractor is an in- 
dividual rather than a group, hiring his own "station gang" and 
paying them at prearranged rates. 

Statisticians. As found in some American trade unions, 
these are national or local officers whose function it is to collect in- 
formation regarding workers, wages, and general conditions in the 
particular industry concerned, to prepare special reports on these 
matters for the local or national executives, and to perform other 
similar duties. (See Deputy System.) 

Statute of Laborers. This, the first in the long series of 
British legislative acts in regulation of labor affairs, was enacted by 
Parliament in 1350. It provided that no laborer should demand and 
no employer should pay wages higher than the rate customary before 
the Great Plague of 1348, when scarcity of numbers gave the laborers 
such an advantage that they were able to secure greatly increased 
wages. Under a later Statute of Laborers, enacted in 1563, the jus- 
tices of the peace for each locality were empowered to fix the amount 
of wages. As the justices were themselves either employers or mem- 
bers of the employing class, the effects of this statute (which remained 
in force more than two hundred years) may easily be imagined. 

Stay In Strike. See Striking on the Job. 

Stevedore System. A form of the contract system as ap- 
plied to the loading and unloading of vessels. The stevedore is usually 
a labor contractor without capital, who furnishes the men required 
for dock work under contract with ship owners or captains. The 
constitution of the International Longshoremen's Association de- 
clares it to be one of the main objects of the association "to substitute 
direct work for vessel owners in place of the system of unloading boats 
by jobbers or boss stevedores, which robs the worker of his wages." 

Steward. A local trade union official, with special functions 
in connection with routine union business — particularly in the 
building trades. "The steward is usually elected by the men from 
among their number immediately upon starting work, but receives 

[462] 



no extra compensation for his services. He examines the working 
CARDS of members, reports infractions of the rules to the business 
AGENT, and can even in certain cases examine the pay of members 
to see that they are not receiving below the minimum rate. The 
steward is thus the representative of the journeyman and a lieu- 
tenant of the business agent. The method of choosing the steward 
differs. Occasionally he is selected by the business agent. In other 
cases no deliberate selection is made, but the first union man employed 
acts as steward. Sometimes each man acts as steward in turn." 
In some unions, notably in England, there are several stewards who 
are assigned to separate functions. Thus, in one large British amal- 
gamated society, we find a sick steward, a "check steward," 
and a ** money steward" for each local branch. In the early days of 
British trade unionism, when branch meetings were almost invariably 
held in the local public-house or tavern, the stewards (or ** marshal- 
men," as they were also called) were originally waiters — two or four 
members of the union, serving generally in rotation, whose duty it 
was "at every meeting to fetch all the liquor into the committee room, 
and serve it regularly round." (See Shop Steward; Patrolmen; 
Shop Collector.) 

Steward's Theory of Wages. As formulated by a Boston 
mechanic, Ira Steward (1831-1883), the essence of this theory is that 
wages do not depend upon the amount of capital or the supply of 
labor, but upon the habits, customs, and wants of the working classes. 
The eight-hour day, by increasing the amount of the worker's lei- 
sure, would raise the standard of living of the workers. As the 
standard of living rises, wages would also rise. Steward's views have 
been the accepted basic doctrine in the American trade union move- 
ment. 

Stiff or Working Stiff. A nickname commonly bestowed upon 
"casual" and "migratory" workers throughout the West — particu- 
larly members of the I. W. W., who themselves often thus designate 
their comrades. Probably the term has its origin in the earlier ety- 
mological sense of "stiif," as synonymous with "strong," "lusty," 
etc. (See Blanket Stiff; Harvest Stiff.) 

Stint or Tantum. In certain" British piece work trades — 
notably pottery and bottle-making — this is (or was) a fixed maximimi 
daily output which the individual worker must not exceed. In other 
trades the term "stint" is used in the same sense as task, as denoting 
a minimum, amount of work that must dq completed within a specified 
time. 

[463] 



Stool Pigeons. See Under-Cover Men. 

Stools. See Under-Cover Men. 

Stop In Strike. See Striking on the Job. 

Stop -Watching. See Time Study. 

Stoppage. As commonly used in connection with labor 
affairs, this term denotes a spasmodic or informal strike confined 
to a single shop or works, for the purpose of forcing an adjustment of 
some immediate grievance or in protest against some act of an in- 
dividual employer or foreman. Stoppages are usually of short dura- 
tion, and as a rule occur without trade union sanction. 

Store Orders or Store Pay. See Script Payments. 

Store Societies. See Consumers' Cooperation. 

Straight Eight -Hour Day. See Eight-Hour Day. 

Straight Pay. A term sometimes used in designation of a 
flat time work or piece work method of wage payment — as differen- 
tiated from any method involving the payment of bonuses or premi- 
imas. (See Straight Piece Work.) 

Straight Piece Work. The method of wage payment under 
which a fixed price is paid for each unit of production ; as distinguished 
from any form of piece work in which bonuses or premiimis are 
added to the piece rate, or in which the piece rate fluctuates in rela- 
tion to the amount of output. Under the "straight piece work" 
system, which is the prevailing method in many industries, the labor 
cost of the article to the employer remains constant, and any increase 
in the output of the workers means a corresponding increase in 
wages. At the same time the employer saves by securing a higher 
output, because overhead charges are reduced and machines more 
fully utilized. 

Straight Time. In connection with overtime work, "straight 
time" is simply the same rate of wages for the overtime as that re- 
ceived for the normal working day or week — ^as distinguished from 
an increased rate for the extra time, on the basis of "time and a 
quarter," time and a half, "double time," etc. In some trades 
"straight time" denotes employment by the week — ^as differentiated 
from "broken time," or employment by the hour. 

Strappers. English dockers and waterside workers who 
are employed in gangs imder contractors are thus nicknamed, 

[464] 



Straw Boss. A sub-foreman in a logging camp or in other 
industrial operations is often so called by the workers. The term is 
also applied, in connection with the practice of job selling, to 
English-speaking foreigners who victimize their fellow-countrymen 
who cannot speak English. (See Padrone System.) 

Street Trades. A collective designation for such occupa- 
tions as shining shoes, selling papers, running errands, etc. Some of 
the worst features of child labor are to be found in the street trades, 
and they are difficult of social control because of the fact that many 
of those engaged in such occupations are "independent proprietors" 
and therefore not subject to legislation regulating hours and conditions 
of labor. 

Strike. The concerted temporary withdrawal from work on 
the part of a group of wage-earners to effect some desired purpose 
— usually the improvement or maintenance of the conditions of their 
employment. Although strikes, in this sense, are as old as the wage 
SYSTEM if not older (indeed, the slave insurrections, peasant revolts, 
and labor wars occurring before the emergence of the wage system 
were essentially "strikes"), the Oxford Dictionary gives the first 
use of the word "strike" in connection with an industrial dispute 
as occurring in 1768. The derivation is probably from the sailors' 
term of "striking" or lowering the mast, thus bringing the ship's 
movement to a stop. The main general purposes for which strikes 
are instituted may be briefly summarized as follows: (i) To main- 
tain or to force an improvement in the terms or conditions of employ- 
ment; (2) to protest against a grievance; (3) to exert pressure in 
favor of some other group of workers involved in an industrial dis- 
pute; (4) to punish other persons or groups for antagonistic or offen- 
sive acts; (5) to dictate to other persons a particular course of con- 
duct in regard to any question; (6) to prevent individuals or groups 
from carrying out a certain expressed or suspected intention; (7) 
to compel a government to adopt or abstain from adopting a par- 
ticular measure or policy. The economic strike (by far the com- 
monest form) is most specifically represented in the first of these 
purposes; the sympathetic strike in the third; the political 
strike in the seventh. But it is difficult, if not impossible, to formu- 
late any arbitrary distinctions of this sort. The sympathetic strike 
may be either economic or political in its ultimate aim; and the 
political strike may be instituted for ends that are actually economic. 
What is loosely known as a general strike may arise in any one or 
more of these seven purposes; while the "social" or "revolutionary" 

[465] 



general strike, which aims at a radical social or industrial transforma- 
tion, is so far mainly a theory, although in some degree inherent in 
any general strike. In the great majority of cases, the chief purpose 
of a strike is either to enforce a demand for increased wages, or to 
resist a reduction of wages. "The theory of bargaining," says the 
Report of the Federal Industrial Commission, "assumes that the 
seller will refuse to sell unless he can get a satisfactory price. There is 
no other means by which a satisfactory price can be got. It is as- 
sumed, as a matter of course, that the buyer will give no more than 
the lowest price at which he can get the commodity. The workman, 
whether standing alone or organized in a union, appears in the market 
as a seller of a particular commodity — labor. He supposes that he 
has the same right as a seller of steel to determine for himself the 
price that his commodity ought to bring. He supposes that he has 
the same right as the seller of steel to refuse to sell unless he can get 
his price. But the strike is neither more nor less than the refusal 
of a number of sellers of labor, acting, for the time being, in agreement, 
to sell their labor below the price which they consider just." A very 
large number of trade unions, both local and national, have in their 
constitutions declarations of a general character to the effect that 
strikes are in themselves undesirable. It is very common to find 
rules that strikes shall be resorted to only "after failure of all 
honorable attempts at peaceful settlement." Moreover, the rules 
of local and national trade unions, almost without exception, provide 
for conciliatory negotiations with employers before a strike may be 
entered upon. If the union feels that it has a grievance it usually 
directs its regular officers or its business agent — if it has one — 
or a special "arbitration committee" to present the matter to the 
employer. Such arbitration committees are sometimes permanently 
constituted, and in other cases are chosen especially to negotiate 
regarding the particular matter at issue. These representatives of 
the union do not, perhaps, usually have power to make binding 
settlements upon other terms than those of the original demand. 
If these terms cannot be secured, the propositions of the employer 
are reported back to the union, and frequently negotiations are 
continued until a compromise is reached. In regard to the legal 
aspects of the strike, it may be said that here, as in nearly all other 
legal phases of the labor movement, the bias of the individual court 
is likely to be the determining factor in any specific case involving 
strike "legality." So far as there is any consistent attitude on the 
part of the courts in the United States, it may be summarized as 
follows: "Except where compulsory arbitration has been intro- 

[ 466 ] 



dticed, as in Kansas in 1920, strikes solely and directly involving 
the rate of pay or the hours of labor are in ordinary times ever3rwhere 
considered legal. But strikes to gain a closed shop, sympathetic 
strikes, and strikes against non-union material have been condemned 
in many jurisdictions. Only in California is it settled law that all 
strikes are legal." Owing to the difficulty or impossibility at times of 
distinguishing in practice between a strike and a lockout, the term 
''dispute" or "trade dispute" has long been used in British labor 
reports as a generic designation for any forced cessation of work. 
(For accounts of specific forms of strikes and strike methods see 
Economic Strike; Political Strike; General Strike; Sympa- 
thetic Strike; Independent Strike; Lightning Strike; Demon- 
stration Strike; One-Man Strike; Safety Strike; Spontaneous 
Strike; Shop Strike; Strike in Detail; Successive Strike; 
Button Strike. For descriptions of trade union methods and 
policies in regard to strikes, see Strike Control; Strike Vote; 
Strike Fund; Strike Pay; Strike Committee; Strike Deputy, 
For other main references to the general subject, see Right to 
Strike; Strikebreaking; Strikebreaker; Picketing; Intimi- 
dation; Strike Insurance; Lockout; Violence in the Labor 
Movement; Agitator.) 

Strike Agent. See Strike Deputy. 

Strike Application. See Strike Vote. 

Strike Assessment. See Strike Fund. 

Strike Benefits. See Strike Pay. 

Strike Circular. See Strike Vote, 

Strike Clerk. See Strike Pay. 

Strike Committee. A temporary body of workers organized 
to manage the policy and tactics of a particular strike or lockout. 
In the case of a local disturbance, the strike committee is chosen 
by the local union, and has full charge of affairs where there is com- 
plete local autonomy; where the local is not autonomous, the strike 
committee acts in cooperation with a special strike deputy sent to 
the scene by the national union to which the local belongs. Where 
more than one local is involved, management of the strike is entrusted 
to a "joint strike committee," composed of members from each 
of the locals involved, usually acting in conjunction with a national 
strike deputy. In the case of a national strike, the officers of the 

[467] 



national union generally act as a strike committee ; if more than one 
national union is involved, a joint committee is formed among the 
national officers of the various unions concerned. 

Strike Control. The question as to whether the power to 
call and conduct strikes should be vested in local or national unions 
has been long and bitterly debated in the American labor movement. 
In much the larger number of unions, strike control is now vested 
largely or wholly in the national or district organizations, particularly 
in those industries which produce for a wide territorial market. Local 
strike control is found chiefly in those industries — notably the building 
trades — which serve a local market. When a national organization 
pays BENEFITS to the members of local unions on strike, the national 
officers are naturally given a very considerable degree of control over 
the inauguration of strikes. The constitutions of well-estabhshed 
national unions usually refuse to sanction any strike unless all the 
following steps have been taken: First, thorough efforts at nego- 
tiation on the part of the local unions affected; second, a determina- 
tion by a two-thirds or three-fourths majority of the local members, 
on secret ballot, to insist on the demands made; next, approval by 
the national officers of the position the locals have taken; and finally, 
exhaustive efforts on the part of these officers, in person or by deputy, 
to obtain a peaceful settlement of the dispute. These national 
officers are in many cases men of high intelligence and of long ex- 
perience as to labor disputes. They are largely free from the per- 
sonal feeling and the narrowness which are likely to characterize the 
local unions in their conflicts with employers. By their intervention, 
accordingly, they are often able to prevent strikes or to secure 
satisfactory settlement of disputes by conciliatory methods. It is 
commonly in those cases where employers refuse to negotiate with 
these national officers that industrial disputes develop into serious 
strikes. (See Strike Vote; Independent Strike.) 

Strike Deputy. In some of the larger American national 
unions, an official who is sent to the scene of any local labor dispute 
to investigate the trouble, make an effort to adjust the matter if that 
is possible, and report to the president and executive board of the 
national body his conclusions as to the situation and his recommenda- 
tions as to what course should be pursued. If a strike is authorized, 
the deputy usually remains on the scene of the trouble, assists in the 
direction of the strike, and endeavors at all times to reach a satisfac- 
tory settlement. Also called "strike agent." (See Special Defense 
Organizers; Strike Committee; Deputy System; Organizer.) 

[468] 



Strike Fund. The money reserve accumulated by a national 
or local trade union for the purpose of distributing strike pay to 
members engaged in an industrial dispute is generally so called. 
Various other designations are, however, often used — such as **war 
chest," ''defense fund," " resistance fund " ''grievance fund," "emer- 
gency fund," "protective fund," "assistance fund," "contingent 
fund," etc.; but it should be noted that the funds thus designated 
are in some unions used for additional or for different ptirposes than 
the payment of strike benefits. Under whatever name, the strike 
fund is ordinarily accumulated in the form of small per capita assess- 
ments levied at weekly, monthly, or other regular intervals on all 
members of the union. During a strike or lockout the fund is often 
supplemented by special assessments levied on union members 
still at work in other localities not affected by the dispute; by appro- 
priations from the regular union funds; and by contributions from 
other unions or from private individuals and other sources outside 
the labor movement. 

Strike in Detail. Mr. and Mrs. Webb use this term in desig- 
nation of a method, often resorted to in trades where workers are 
limited in nimiber and closely-knit in organization, of bringing an 
offending employer to terms. It consists in the workers leaving the 
employer one by one, without giving any definite reason for their 
action, until his shop is so disorganized that he is ready and willing 
to comply with any reasonable demands. This plan is sometimes 
called the "individual strike." 

Strike Insurance. What employers consider a necessary 
counterbalance to the advantages secured by trade unions in the dis- 
tribution of strike pay to their members is provided by the "defense 
funds" maintained by many employers' associations. Such funds 
are used to assist any member of the association whose workers are 
out on strike. In the case of some employers' associations, the 
amount of members' contributions to this fund is determined by the 
income of the trade union or unions in the same industry or industrial 
field. Such contributions are regarded by the employers as premiums 
for str ke insurance. In addition or as an alternative to this form of 
protection, employers often take out policies in commercial insurance 
companies which provide for reimbursement of financial losses oc- 
casioned by a strike. In a wholly different sense, the term "strike 
insurance" has been appl'ed to bribes given by employers to corrupt 
labor officials for the purpose of buying immunity from strikes or 
other labor disturbances. 

[ 469 1 



Strike Legislation. A collective designation for national or 
state laws governing the use of intimidation, picketing, the boy- 
cott, etc., in STRIKES and lockouts, the settlement of such disputes 
by ARBITRATION, and similar matters. 

Strike Money. See Strike Pay. 

Strike of the Machine. A name sometimes given to that 
form of SABOTAGE which consists in disabling industrial machinery by 
breaking, misplacing, or taking away some indispensable part. 

Strike Order. See Strike Vote. 

Strike Pay. The name most commonly given in America to 
the periodic (usually weekly) payments made by labor organizations 
to members who are collectively engaged in a strike or other indus- 
trial dispute. The payment of such relief is ordinarily entrusted to 
the national unions, which thereby acquire a large degree of control 
over the calling, management, and termination of strikes; but in 
some industries (notably the building trades) strikes are still financed 
by, and hence largely controlled by, the local unions. The relief to 
be given to strikers is left in many imions to the national executive 
board, and often depends, of necessity, upon the amount of money 
that is available. Many of the constitutions, however, fix the amount 
to which striking members are entitled. The stmi named is usually 
a bare subsistence wage. Often a distinction is made between mar- 
ried men, or those with families dependent upon them, and those 
who have no one to support but themselves. There is very little 
tendency to make the strike pay in any degree proportional to the 
customary earnings in the trade. The cessation of strike pay is usu- 
ally in the power of the executive board. In many cases a time limit 
is fixed by the constitution, though the executive board may even 
then have power to continue the strike support by a special vote. 
In some cases the amount of strike pay is diminished after a fixed 
period. "If the funds of the national union are to be properly pro- 
tected, it is of course necessary that some check be put upon the 
indolence and greed of some members, and upon the action of local 
officers. Two common provisions are that if a man refuses to accept 
employment in an establishment not affected by the strike his name 
must be stricken at once from the strike roll, and that if a member 
has worked for three or four days in any week he is not entitled to 
strike pay for that week. To make sure that the members are not 
earning wages and drawing strike pay also, it is often required that in 
order to draw the strike pay a member must appear each day at the 

[470] 



local headquarters and sign a roll. Sometimes the roll is signed in 
triplicate, and at least one copy is sent to the national headquarters. 
A detailed report of all payments is required in many organizations 
to be sent weekly to the national secretary. Sometimes strike pay is 
disbursed by two members chosen by the local union for the purpose, 
and known as clerk and paymaster. The clerk makes out the pay 
rolls and the paymaster disburses the money. In some unions a third 
person is added, who is known as a receiver, and to whom, as the 
representative of the local union, all strike funds are turned over." 
Strike pay is sometimes known under other names — ^as for example, 
"strike benefits" or "strike money" in America; and "dispute bene- 
fits," "contingent benefits," or "dispute pay" in England. (See 
Trade Privilege Benefit; Strike Fund.) 

Strike Paymaster. See Strike Pay. 

Strike Receiver. See Strike Pay. 

Strike Referendum. See Strike Vote. 

Strike Roll. See Strike Pay. 

Strike Vote, (i) Local. In most trade unions nationally 
organized, a local strike involving more than twenty-five members 
must be sanctioned by at least a majority vote of the local union to 
which the workers belong. It is usually necessary, in addition, to 
secure the consent of the executive board of the national union in- 
volved, before the strike can be declared. In some local unions, 
strike votes are taken in asking sanction to strike from the national 
executive board, and if the vote and the decision of the executive 
board are favorable the strike may be called at once; but in most 
unions the strike vote can be taken only after a favorable reply to the 
"strike application" has been received from the executive board. 
(2) National. As a general rule, a national strike must be sanctioned 
by at least a majority vote of all the locals of the national union 
involved. Sometimes a two-thirds, or even a three-fourths, vote is 
required. The usual procedure is for the executive board to mail to 
each local in the union a "strike circular," setting forth the grievances 
and circumstances which have led up to the proposed strike action. 
The locals must then immediately vote on the proposal, and the re- 
sults of the vote are telegraphed to the executive board. If the 
strike is sanctioned by the required majority, the executive board 
issues a "strike order," stating the precise time when the strike is to 
begin. In nearly all cases of a strike referendum, voting is by secret 
ballot. In some unions no one can take part in a strike vote unless 

[471] 



he has been a member of the union for from three to six months. (See 
Strike Control; Independent Strike.) 

Strikebreaker. A person who is hired or who volunteers to 
take the place of a worker on strike. Owing to the difficulty of 
securing such persons in the immediate vicinity of a strike, they are 
often imported from other states or from neighboring regions. Labor 
detective agencies make a practice of supplying professional 
strikebreakers in practically any desired number; while some of the 
large employers' associations keep in readiness a corps of skilled 
workers to be used for this purpose. Volunteer strikebreakers are 
in nearly all cases persons who are directly antagonistic to organized 
labor or who happen to be personally inconvenienced by the par- 
ticular strike in progress. But the great majority of strikebreakers 
are of the professional type mentioned above. They are commonly 
recruited from the lowest and most ignorant classes of society, and 
their entry into a disturbed industrial area is the most frequent 
cause of violence and disorder in the labor movement. "The fact 
is," says the staff report of the Federal Commission on Industrial 
Relations, "practically without exception, either that the strike- 
breaker is not a genuine workingman but is a professional who merely 
fills the place of the worker and is unable or unwilling to do steady 
work, or, if he is a bona fide workingman, that he is ignorant of con- 
ditions or compelled to work under duress. The nonworking char- 
acter of the strikebreaker is shown by the fact that very few are ever 
retained as workers after the termination of the strike, while the 
attitude of genuine workingmen toward strikebreaking is shown by 
the significant fact that in the bids of employment agencies and 
detective agencies to furnish strikebreakers it is provided that 
guards will be furnished with each car 'to prevent escape in transit,' 
and by the fact that when men are candidly informed in the public 
employment offices of the existence of a strike, workers practically 
never apply for such positions even though they may be in dire 
want." (See Scab; Rat; Blackleg; Armed Guards; Middle 
Class Unions; Violence in the Labor Movement.) 

Strikebreaking. So many methods of defeating or "breaking" 
a strike have been, and still are, practiced that any complete Hst 
or simmiary is out of the question in this place. Sometimes the 
employer plays a merely passive part, endeavoring to "starve out" 
the workers — or, if he feels that public opinion is on his side, awaiting 
the force of that opinion to bring the strikers to terms. More com- 
monly, however, his role is an active one. If the "struck" establish- 

[472] 



ment belongs to a large corporation, with several plants throughout 
the country, workers may often be shifted to the strike area from 
other places, and operations thus resimied. Professional strike- 
breakers may be secured from labor detective agencies, em- 
ployers' ASSOCIATIONS, and other sources; often negroes and other 
unorganized workers are imported in large numbers from other states 
for this purpose. Strikers living in company houses may be evicted, 
and local merchants coerced into refusing credit to workers on strike. 
The injunction may be invoked to prohibit picketing and other 
forms of strike activity, or the union leaders may be enjoined from 
taking any part in the strike. In connivance with public officials, 
owners of halls, etc., the strikers may be prevented from holding 
public meetings or even gathering in groups. Other methods less 
commonly resorted to are the intimidation, assault, or corruption 
of strike leaders; the "buying up" of newspapers so that all news 
of the strike will be perverted in favor of the employer and against 
the workers; the forcible kidnapping of men on strike, as in the 
BiSBEE DEPORTATIONS, ctc. Many of these practices, as specifically 
stated in one or two instances above, would be impossible without 
the active or passive assistance of public officials and the courts. 
Indeed, such assistance, though not in all cases consciously directed 
to such an end, is commonly the decisive factor in breaking any 
large-scale or prolonged strike. (See Scab; Blackleg; Rat; Armed 
Guards; Middle Class Unions; State Constabulary; Tech- 

NISCHE NotHILFE.) 

Strikes in Russia. Industry being largely nationalized in 
present-day Russia, and wages and working conditions being generally 
under control of the workers themselves, the right to strike is not 
recognized by the Soviet government and strikes are considered "an 
act of treason to the proletarian revolution." Nevertheless, strikes 
have occurred; but there is no reliable information as to the govern- 
mental course which has been followed with reference to them. The 
chief cause of strikes, according to W. T. Goode, is "the lack of 
elasticity in the wages tariffs." 

Striking on the Job. One of the commoner forms of sabot- 
age, consisting in working as slowly and inefficiently as possible 
without an actual stoppage. In brief, it is the policy of obstruction- 
ism in industry— the device of suspending or seriously impeding pro- 
duction without suspending wages. It is sometimes adopted to gain 
a definite concession from the employer; but is perhaps more often 
resorted to by workers smarting under defeat in a regular strike. 

[ 473 1 



While a favorite method of the I. W. W., its use is by no means 

confined to that organization, and it is known in all industrial coun- 
tries under various names. The English call it the "stop in" (or, 
as we should say, "stay in") strike; in Japan it is called the taigyo; 
and so forth. What are known as the "lazy strike," the "go slow- 
strike," the "white strike," and the "irritation strike" are practically 
the same thing as "striking on the job." (See Ca' Canny; Work-to- 
RuLE Movement; Conscientious Withdrawal of Efficiency; 
Limitation of Output.) 

Struck Shop. An establishment against which a strike has 
been declared is commonly so called in labor circles. 

Struggle for Existence. See Survival of the Fittest. 

Sub -Boss. See Boss. 

Sub -Contracting. While some authorities make little if 
any practical distinction between the contract system and what 
is called "sub-contracting," the latter term has a specific meaning 
which it seems worth while to preserve — a meaning that is sufficiently 
indicated in the term itself. The building trades in the United 
States are largely carried on under a system of sub-contracting. 
As described by Professor Commons, "the mason builder, or general 
contractor, secures the contract from the owner, or 'client,* and 
generally puts up the brickwork; but he submits by competitive 
bidding all the other work to as many contractors as there are kinds 
of work. This system enables the contractor to enter the field with 
little or no capital, since it is usually arranged that partial payments 
shall be made by the owner to the general contractor, and by him to 
the sub-contractors, as the work progresses." In the garment trades, 
where sub-contracting was formerly prevalent, the "manufacturer" 
of ready-made clothing would give his work to a contractor who 
was a responsible party, usually not a tailor himself. "This contractor 
would then give the work to some man who kept a tailors' boarding 
house or a saloon where the tailors were accustomed to come together. 
This boarding-house keeper or saloon keeper was a sub-contractor, 
though not a tailor. He in turn would give this work out to the 
individual tailors whom he personally knew, who were responsible 
for the work." In England, sub-contracting is sometimes called 
"sub-letting." (See Sweating System; Station System; Lumper; 
Outwork.) 

Sub -District Council. See District Council. 

(474] 



Sub-Division. See Division. 

Sub -Letting. See Sub Contracting. 

Sub -Local. A few American national unions permit the or- 
ganization of small groups of isolated members, as branches of the 
nearest local. "The members of the branch pay to the parent local 
union their monthly dues and assessments and are permitted to at- 
tend its meetings. If not near enough to attend, they may hold 
separate meetings at which they may vote on all matters under con- 
sideration by other members of the local union. They can make no 
contracts with employers nor take any other action without the con- 
sent of the society with which they are affiliated. When bridge and 
structural iron workers who are members of a union in some large 
city are sent away to perform work in some isolated community, they 
are usually permitted to organize themselves as a branch of the local 
union in the city from which they come." Another form of sub-local 
is composed of members employed in a single establishment — as 
exempHfied by the printers' chapel ^nd by the shop club or shop 
meeting in other trades. The pit committee found in miners' 
unions might also be considered as belonging to this class. (See 
Language Branch; Shop Union.) 

Sub -Lodge. See Lodge. 

Sub-Standard Workers. See Minimum Wage Laws. 

Subbotnik (Saturdaying). In the spring of 19 19, while the 
threat of Kolchak's counter-revolution in Russia was greatest, a 
meeting of communists in the sub-district of the Moscow-Kazan 
Railway passed a resolution that, in view of the imminent danger to 
the Republic, communists and their sympathizers should give up an 
hour a day of their leisure, and limiping these hours together do every 
Saturday during the usual holiday time six hours of voluntary unpaid 
manual labor in reconstruction work; and, further, that these "Com- 
munist Saturdayings" should be continued "until complete victory 
over Kolchak should be assured." That decision of a local com- 
mittee was the beginning of a movement which has since spread all 
over Russia. 

Subdivision of Labor. See Division op Labor. 

Subordinate Union, Lodge, Division. See Local; Lodge; 
Division. 

Subsidized Workshops. As established by charitable agen- 
cies in a number of large cities, these are non-competitive workshops 

[47s 1 



for the manufacture and repair of handmade articles, their chief pur- 
pose being to provide work for unemployables and those who are 
temporarily unable to secure other employment. 

Subsistence Level. See Minimum Subsistence Level. 

Subsistence Theory of Wages. See Iron Law of Wages. 

Subsistence Wage. See Living Wage. 

Substitution. A term commonly used in England during the 
recent war in designation of the process by which a woman (usually 
known as a "substituted worker") took the place of a male worker 
who was called into military service or advanced to more important 
work. (See Dilution of Labor.) 

Successive Strike. This term has been applied to the policy, 
supported and sometimes adopted by the American Federation of 
Labor, of inaugurating a series of successive trade strikes, one trade 
after another being selected according to strength and strategic po- 
sition until all trades had obtained some general reform — as for 
example, the eight-hour day. This is favored by conservative labor 
leaders in preference to the general strike, as involving at any 
given time only a comparatively small number of workers, who would 
have the combined support of all other unions in the Federation. 

Suggestion System. As a factor in personnel administra- 
tion, this is the method of encouraging employees to submit ideas 
for improved processes or machinery, better working conditions, in- 
creased production, etc. "Suggestion boxes" are often provided for 
this purpose in large industrial plants, and in some cases monthly 
or annual prizes are offered for the best suggestion submitted by an 
employee of the plant. 

Sunday Rest Laws. See One Day's Rest in Seven. 

Suomen Ammattijarjesto (Trade Union Federation). The 
principal national labor body of Finland. It was founded in 1907, 
and ten years later had 161,000 members. The "white terror" insti- 
tuted in 19 18 against Finnish socialists and trade unionists by the 
reactionary government, under Mannerheim's direction, reduced 
the Federation's membership to 21,000. But by October, 1920, it 
had risen to 55,000. About two-thirds of the members are com- 
munists. 

Super. The superintendent of a mine or factory is often 
referred to by the workers under him as "the super. ' 

[476] 



Superannuation Benefits. See Old Age Insurance. 

Superintendents. See Supervisory Workers. 

Superior Servant Doctrine. In connection with employer's 
LIABILITY, this refers to the commonly accepted legal principle that, 
other things being equal, an employer is liable for damages to an 
injured employee where the injury is due to the exercise of superior 
authority conferred by the employer upon another employee — as 
for example, in the case of a superintendent or foreman. That is to 
say, if the agent whose negligence brought about the injury to a 
coemployee was performing any of the duties properly belonging to 
the employer, he is regarded not as a "fellow servant," but as a 
"superior servant" or "vice principal," of the employer, who thus 
becomes liable for damages. The "superior servant doctrine" — or 
"vice principal doctrine," as it is often called — thus represents a 
limitation of the "fellow-servant rule." 

Superior Use Doctrine. See Land Question. 

Supervisory Workers. Those^who hold an intermediate posi- 
tion between the management and the "rank and file" workers, and 
whose function it is to supervise or oversee the latter. The appoint- 
ment and conduct of these foremen, superintendents, and the like, 
as well as their relation to trade unionism, raise many important 
questions in the labor movement. According to a recent British 
government report, "the appointment of foremen is a question on 
which there may be said to be three groups of opinions. Many em- 
ployers hold that it is a purely management question. The opposite 
extreme to this is the claim made by a considerable section of trade 
unionists that the workmen should choose their own foremen. A 
position intermediate to these two extremes is taken up by a cer- 
tain ntunber of employers and by a section of workpeople; the appoint- 
ment (they feel) should be made by the management, but it should 
be submitted to the works council before it becomes effective." 
The conduct of supervisory workers in relation to the rank and file, 
particularly as regards discipline and the discharge of workers, often 
leads to serious strikes. In relation to trade unionism, it may be 
said that supervisory workers are for the most part promoted from 
the ranks of manual wage-earners, and on promotion they have usu- 
ally in the past come to regard themselves as servants of the employ- 
ers, with no further concern for working-class interests. In England, 
however, they have not seldom retained their trade union connection, 
on a limited basis; and have sometimes even played a prominent part 

[477I 



in the trade union movement. In a few trades they have organized 
in associations of their own. Many American trade unions definitely 
bar foremen; a few require foremen to be members; while in others 
the matter is left to the discretion of the local unions. A definite 
standard of foremanship concerning such matters as manners and 
attitude toward the workers is required by a few particularly strong 
unions. (See Functional Foremanship; Single Foremanship; 
Policing; Boss; Deputies; Company Man; Gaffer; Super; 
Overman; Charge-Hand; Walker.) 

Supply and Demand, Law of. The economic theory that the 
price of a given commodity in a given market rises if the demand 
increases without a proportionate increase in the supply, or if the 
supply decreases without a proportionate decrease in the demand. 
Conversely stated, the price falls if the supply increases without a 
proportionate increase in the demand, or if the demand decreases 
without a proportionate decrease in the supply. This law, according 
to Mill, ''governs the value of all things that cannot be indefinitely 
increased." With specific reference to labor, the so-called *'law of 
supply and demand" was long the main support of a once popular 
doctrine, according to which (in the words of Mr. and Mrs. Webb) 
"working men were told, by friends and foes alike, that they could 
no longer be regarded as citizens entitled to legal protection of their 
established expectations ; that labor was a commodity like any other ; 
and that their real position was that of sellers in a market, entitled 
to do the best they could for themselves within the limits of the law 
of the land, but to no better terms than they could, by the ordinary 
arts of bargaining, extract from those with whom they dealt. It 
was the business of the employer to buy 'labor' in the cheapest 
market, and that of the workman to sell it in the dearest." As an 
inescapable corollary of this doctrine, all the efforts of the work- 
ers must be directed to strengthening their bargaining position 
against the employers by the creation of powerful trade unions. (See 
Commodity Theory of Labor; Unemployment; Labor Supply; 
Labor Market.) 

Supreme Council of Public Economy. One of the eighteen 
main executive divisions of the Russian Soviet government, having 
in charge the financing, management, and coiTelation of industry, 
and the distribution of food, fuel, raw materials, etc. It consists 
of sixty-nine members, of whom thirty are nominated by the national 
"professional alliances" (trade unions), ten by the All-Russian 
Central Executive Committee, twenty by the regional economic 

[478I 



COUNCILS, and two by the cooperatives; the remaining seven are Peo- 
ple's Commissars or heads of related government departments. It is 
under the general direction of a " pr^sidiimi " or governing body of ten 
members, nominated by the Central Executive Committee of Trade 
Unions and confirmed b}^ the Council of People's Commissars, with 
a President (or Commissar of National Economy) appointed by the 
All-Russian Executive Committee. The routine work of the Supreme 
Council is distributed among some sixty sections, of which ten have 
to do with distribution or are of a general nature (statistical, legal, 
inspection, etc.) and fifty with production. Of these latter, each has 
general control of one or more nationally organized industries. (See 
Industrial Organization in Russia; Nationalization in Russia.) 

Surplus Value Theory. The central point in Karl Marx's 
explanation of the history and influence of capital. Morris Hillquit 
simimarizes the surplus value theory as follows : ** Since the individual 
capitalist owns the tools without which no labor can be performed 
in modern society, and the laborer owns nothing but his ability to 
work — his labor power, the workingman is compelled to sell that 
labor power to the capitalist for a fixed daily wage. His labor power 
is sold to the capitalist to be used for a day of a duration of eight, 
ten or twelve hours, according to agreement, and the products of 
his labor are divided between him and his employer. The portion 
of such labor that falls to the share of the workingman is his wage, 
and the portion retained by the manufacturing capitalist Marx calls 
'surplus value.' The 'surplus value' of the manufacturing capitalist 
is by no means his clear profit; as a rule, he is forced to divide it with 
the landlord, the money lender and the merchant. 'Surplus value' 
is the source of all profits of the manufacturing and trading capi- 
talists, the rents of the landowning capitalists, and the interest of 
the money-lending capitaHsts. Thus the capitahsts of all types 
depend upon the production of 'surplus value,' while the working 
class depends upon wages. Since wages and * surplus value ' come from 
the same source, i.e., labor power, it is clear that the proportion of 
the one will be relatively larger as the proportion of the other is 
relatively smaller, and vice versa; in other words, the greater the 
share of capital in the created values, the smaller the share of labor. 
The economic interests of capital and labor are, therefore, opposed 
to each other, and while it is in the interest of the class deriving its 
income from 'surplus value' to maintain the present system of dis- 
tribution of wealth, the interests of the working class lie in the aboli- 
tion of that system." (See Labor Theory op Value.) 

[ 479 ] 



Survival of the Fittest. According to the Darwinian theory 
of evolution, all forms of organic life undergo a process of continual 
change or modification under the influence of environment, consti- 
tuting in effect an unending "struggle for existence," and in this 
struggle those individuals ** which are best fitted for the complex 
and in the course of ages changing conditions to which they are ex- 
posed generally survive and procreate their kind," the weaker or 
unfit forms being gradually eliminated in this process of ** natural 
selection." The industrial barons of Darwin's day were not slow to 
grasp the sinface implications of this theory, as applied to the eco- 
nomic field; and from that day to this it has been widely and generally 
utilized to justify the most ruthless forms of economic exploitation, 
on the false ground that it was no less applicable to man's artificial 
arrangements than to the process of natural evolution. From this 
standpoint also, socialism and kindred altruistic theories are held 
to be arbitrary interferences with natural law, and therefore pre- 
doomed to failure. The real significance of Darwin's theories, as far 
as they may be applied by analogy to the industrial field, are, how- 
ever, almost wholly on the side of the social idealists. (See Mutual 
Aid; Competitive System.) 

Suspension. See Finances of Trade Unions; Discipline. 

Sweat Shop. A place where industrial work is carried on 
under the general conditions described in the entry, Sweating 
System. Low rent and a situation in or close to the congested dis- 
tricts of foreign-bom workers are commonly the most essential fac- 
tors in the case of sweat shops. Such shops are usually found in city 
alleys, in attics, on top floors, above stables, and often in the tene- 
ments or other homes of the workers. If machinery is required, it is 
almost always of the foot-power type. 

Sweater. A common designation for any employer of labor 
under conditions involving excessive working hours, meagre wages, 
and insanitary or otherwise unwholesome surroundings for the 
workers. In the garment trades the "sweater " is usually a contractor 
or sub-contractor who takes out material owned by the "manu- 
facturer" and returns it to him as a finished garment. On the other 
hand the small manufacturer may impose the same oppressive and 
unwholesome conditions upon his workers as does the contractor, and 
so is no less a "sweater." (See Sweating System; Little Master). 

Sweating System. A term rather too loosely used to permit 
of exact definition, but in general applying to any industrial work in 

[480] 



which the following conditions prevail: (i) A rate of wages inade- 
quate to the necessities of the workers or disproportionate to the 
work done; (2) excessive hours of labor; (3) insanitary or otherwise 
unwholesome working quarters. The system is now chiefly confined 
to the manufacture of garments, paper flowers, millinery ornaments, 
and other cheap hand-made articles. It is possible, however, in any 
industry carried on (i) in large and overcrowded cities, particularly 
in those containing a considerable percentage of foreign-bom workers ; 
(2) under the contract system; and (3) by hand work only, or with 
inexpensive machinery. In its earlier form the sweating system was 
practically identical with the system of sub-contracting, "the 
difference between the price paid the contractor and the price paid 
the sub-contractor or actual worker being considered as 'sweated* 
from the normal earnings of the latter. Of late years, however, the 
tendency has been to reduce the cost by eliminating the sub-con- 
tractor, without in any way changing the labor conditions." Ac- 
cording to Professor Commons, "the system to be contrasted with 
the sweating system is the 'factory system,' wherein the manufac- 
turer employs his own workmen, under the management of his 
own foreman or superintendent, in his own building, with steam, 
electric, or water power. In the sweating system the foreman 
becomes a contractor, with his own small shop and foot-power 
machine. In the factory system the workmen are congregated 
where they can be seen by the factory inspectors and where 
they can organize or develop a common understanding. In the 
sweating system they are isolated and unknown." According 
to Adams and Sumner, "three principal varieties of sweating have 
been distinguished. First, individuals may labor in their own 
homes with the assistance only of members of their families. 
A great deal of custom work is done in this way by skilled journey- 
men tailors. For the most part, however, this is the lowest type of 
sweat shop labor, and is frequently carried on under conditions of 
indescribable filth and squalor. . . . Secondly, individuals may labor 
in their homes with hired assistance for particular operations. This 
is the typical form of sweating, under which the living apartments 
are turned into factories in which outsiders are employed, and fre- 
quently also boarded. . . . The sweater, in this case, is not merely a 
contractor, but is the head workman, and often the only person in the 
shop who understands all the different processes involved in the mak- 
ing of a garment. It is against these shops that legislation is particu- 
larly directed. The third variety of sweating is carried on in work- 
rooms used especially for that purpose. These are sometimes con- 

I 481] 



nected with the living rooms of the sweater, but sometimes they are 
in buildings which are not used for residential purposes. ... As the 
size of the shop and the number of employees increase, the sweater 
becomes more and more an overseer, driving the laborers to the 
greatest possible speed for the longest possible hours." The evils of 
the sweating system have led to regulative legislation, of one sort or 
another, in several European countries and in twelve states of this 
country. (See Contract System in the Garment Trades; Task 
System; Home Work; Sweat Shop; Tenement-House Work; 
Little Master; Parasitic Industries; Under-Employment; 
Consumers' Leagues.) 

Swedish Industrial Conciliators. Under a law which came 
into force in 1907, Sweden is divided into seven districts, and an 
industrial conciliator is appointed by the crown for each district. 
The conciliator must reside within his district, and his principal duty 
is to promote the settlement of disputes between employers and 
work-people or between members of either class among themselves. 
He is also on request to advise and otherwise assist employers and 
work-people in framing agreements affecting the conditions of labor 
if and so far as agreements are designed to promote good relations 
between the two classes and to obviate stoppages of work. 

Swedish National Federation of Trade Unions. See Lands- 

ORGANISATION I SVERGE. 

Swift. See Speeding Up. 

Swiss Federation of Trade Unions. See Schweizerischen 
Gewerkschaftsbund. 

Sygekassen. See Mutual Aid Societies. 

Sympathetic Boycott. A labor boycott instituted by per- 
sons not directly involved in any dispute between employers and 
employees, but whose action is due to sympathy with the cause of 
workers who are thus involved. 

Sympathetic Strike. In its commonest form, a strike called 
by workers who have no direct grievance against their employer but 
who are acting in order to bring pressure to bear in favor of other 
• workers who are involved in a strike or lockout. The purpose which 
such a strike supports is usually economic — that is to say, it has to 
do wiiolly with relations between employers and employ ees. Erit 
sympathetic strikes for political ends are by no means a rarity. In 

[482] 



such cases they are generally intended to exert pressure in favor of 
some worker or group of workers suffering actually or supposedly 
from governmental persecution or injustice. Very little mention is 
made of S3niipathetic strikes in the written constitutions of the na- 
tional unions. Two or three except sympathetic strikes from the 
restrictions imposed in other cases, so far as to permit local unions, 
though forbidden generally to strike without the previous approval 
of the national executive board, to join in a sympathetic strike 
without previous approval, and still to be entitled to the support of 
the national organization, provided the national executive board is 
satisfied, after investigation, that the local acted with discretion. 
The sympathetic strike in its common or economic form is occasion- 
ally referred to as the "multiplied strike." It has been most fre- 
quently resorted to in the building trades. 

Syndicalism. Derived from syndicate meaning a local trade 
union, the French term syndicalisme meant originally "trade union- 
ism," and is still often used in that sense in France. The opposition 
between revolutionaries and reformists in the French labor move- 
ment gave rise to the terms syndicalisme revolutionnaire and syn- 
dicalisme reformistCy as designations for the opposing theories and 
methods of the two factions. Then later, because of the preponder- 
ance of the revolutionary group, its doctrine came to be known as 
syndicalisme simply; and from that usage the name passed into 
other countries. But it is important to keep in mind the original 
meaning of the term, as showing that syndicalism is not merely an 
untried theory or philosophy, but a practical development from 
actual facts and conditions in the French labor movement. The 
central doctrine of syndicalism is that the worker should control the 
conditions of his work — that industry should be managed solely by 
the producers, organized in industrial unions. Its underlying basis 
is the CLASS struggle, "the war of the exploited against the ex- 
ploiters," the denial that social peace is possible or desirable under 
capitalism. In the minds of syndicalists, the political State, with its 
army and its official bureaucracy, exists to protect and foster cap- 
italistic property, and so the State must be swept away before cap- 
italism can be abolished. The actual producers, organized in indus- 
trial unions, trades councils, and a general federation of industrial 
unions and trades councils, will carry on the present activities of the 
State. Syndicalism is thus, in essence, revolutionary unionism 
with the State left out. In regard to method, Marx's phrase, "the 
emancipation of labor must be the work of labor itself," is the watch- 

[483] 



word of the movement. Bourgeois society can only be supplanted 
as the workers develop "social tissue" of their own, and create new 
organisms capable of expressing their desires and serving their in- 
terests. Through the avenue of industrial unionism, and rejecting 
all political methods, alliances, and compromises, syndicalism aims 
finally to capture the State by means of the national or "social" 
GENERAL STRIKE, and then to substitute for it a government of trade 
unions which would regard all its citizens in their primary capacity 
as producers rather than consumers. Sabotage and the boycott — 
every form of direct action, in fact — are to be employed as inci- 
dental or transient means in achieving this end. Syndicalism thus 
frankly relies upon coercion, the pitting of organized working-class 
force against organized capitalistic force. But such coercion does 
not necessarily imply violence, in the sense of bloodshed and destruc- 
tion ; and violence has in fact hitherto played but a small part in the 
movement. The syndicalist scorns socialism as a palliative and com- 
promise. He is at one with the anarchist in his hostility to the State; 
but whereas he would simply substitute for the present State another 
form of authority — that of trade unionism — the true anarchist is 
opposed to every form of coercive government. There is some com- 
mon ground between syndicalism and cooperation, and still more 
between syndicalism and guild socialism; but in both cases the 
differences heavily outweigh the resemblances. In France, the syn- 
dicalist movement is closely allied with what is known as anarchist 
communism, though this term leaves out of account the fundamental 
industrial basis of syndicalism. Originating as it did within the 
French labor movement, syndicalism is most properly associated with 
the CoNFfiDfiRATiON GfiNfiRALE DU Travail, within which body it has 
long been the dominant philosophy. There, however, it assimies a 
much milder form than in some of the countries to which it has 
been exported — notably America, where the s3rQdicalism of the 
I. W. W. has little in common with the French movement. (See 
Industrialized Nationalization; Socialism of Institutions; 
Criminal Syndicalism Laws; Boring from Within; Ce-Ge-Teist; 
Industrial Democrats; Miners' Next Step; Grand National; 
Neo-Marxians.) 

Syndicalisme Reformiste. See Syndicalism. 

Syndicalisme Revolutionnaire. See Syndicalism. 

Syndicalist Unionism. See Revolutionary Unionism. 

Syndicate Unico. See ConfederaciOn General del Trabajo. 

[484I 



Syndicat. In ordinary French usage, a local trade union. 
The word generally refers to a trade union composed of manual 
wage-earners; although such an organization is, strictly speaking, 
a syndicat ouvrier. The syndicats are mainly of the industrial type 
{syndicats d'industrie) ; the craft unions {syndicats de metier) having 
largely disappeared. By far the larger ntimber are "fighting" organ- 
izations devoted to revolutionary ends; these are often termed 
syndicats rouges, or "red syndicats." The minority represent the 
REFORMIST element, favoring political action, moderation, com- 
promise, and OPPORTUNIST methods in general. While these are 
sometimes called syndicats jaunes or "yellow syndicats," that term 
is more commonly applied to the unions initiated or controlled by 
employers and to the middle class unions. What are known as 
syndicats mtxteSt or "mixed syndicats," are usually mere benefit 
societies, often attached to particular factories. The syndicats 
agricoles are unions of agricultural laborers, and play little part 
in the general industrial movement. The syndicats are, in the main, 
federated by localities in the bourses du travail; by districts, in 
the Unions Regionales; by provinces, in the Unions DSpart- 
mentales; and nationally, in the FfiDfiRATiONS dTndustrie, 
although a few craft federations {Federations de Metier) still survive. 
They also affiliate with the national central organization, the Con- 
FfiDfiRATiON GfiNfiRALE DU Travail — both indirectly, through the 
above-mentioned federated bodies, and directly. But within all of 
these local, regional, and national organizations, most of them 
retain almost complete local autonomy. (See Syndicalism; Marque 
Syndicale.) 

System Federations, (i) Delegate bodies representative of 
the various national, international, and brotherhood organizations 
affiliated with the Railway Employees' Department of the Amer- 
ican Federation of Labor. Each system federation is represen- 
tative of such organizations for a single railway system of the United 
States and Canada. It elects its own officers, holds regular meetings, 
and through an advisory board of five members negotiates with the 
management in regard to grievances and other matters. These 
system federations are chartered directly by the Railway Employees' 
Department, and are subject to the latter's control. They are en- 
titled to send delegates to the Department's biennial convention. 
(2) The so-called "big four" railway brotherhoods, which are 
not affiliated with the A. F. of L., have a plan according to which, 
after the fulfilment of certain stringent conditions, federations may 
32 [ 48s ] 



be formed on individual railroad systems by two or more of the 
brotherhoods. The conditions for the entrance of any brotherhood 
into a system federation are that two-thirds of the members of the 
organization on the system involved shall have voted in favor of 
federation and the chief executive of the organization shall have 
given his approval. These federations exist mainly for the adjust- 
ment of grievances. (See Cedar Rapids Plan; Brotherhood 
Cooperations.) 



T. A. See Triple Alliance. 

T. U. C. See Trades Union Congress. 

Taff Vale Decision. Growing out of a suit brought by the 
Taff Vale Railway in South Wales against the Amalgamated Society 
of Railway Servants for damages sustained in connection with a 
strike involving breach of contract, this was an opinion handed 
down in 1902 by the British House of Lords, in its judicial capacity, 
declaring that a trade union is a corporate body to the extent that it 
can be sued and held liable for the acts of its agents. Agitation over 
this decision, which imperilled all trade union funds and virtually 
nullified the fighting power of organized British labor, was largely 
responsible for the election of thirty labor members to Parliament in 
1906 ; and finally resulted in the passage of the Trade Disputes Act 
of 1906, which removed the liability. 

Taigyo. See Striking on the Job. 

Tally System. See Liverpool Dock Scheme. 

Tame Union. See Company Union. 

Tantum. See Stint. 

Task, (i) In general, a fixed and definite amount of work, as 
dealt with in the entry. Task System. (2) In connection with scien- 
tific management, a standard amount of work of a prescribed quality 
which must be completed within a given time to make the worker 
eligible for a bonus or premium in addition to his regular daily wage. 
The setting of the task (the amount of work) in relation to the task 
time (the maximum time allotted for its completion) is accomplished 
by detailed time and motion study, allowance being usually made 
for necessary shop delays and also for the health of the worker. 

Task and Bonus System. See Gantt System. 

[487] 



Task Management. See Scientific Management. 

Task Master. See Task System. 

Task Setting. See Task. 

Task System or Task Work. In a general sense, the system 
or method under which a single worker or group of workers is re- 
quired to finish a specified amount of work (commonly called the 
"task" or stint or "dead line") within a given period of time or 
else suffer a reduction in wages for that period, although no addi- 
tional wages are paid for any excess of output. "Needless to say," 
according to G. D. H. Cole, "this system is strenuously opposed by 
the workers, nor does it exist in any organized trade; but many of 
the features of the task-work system exist in those cases in which a 
certain output is rigidly exacted, and the worker who fails to reach 
that output is at once dismissed. In these cases there is no deduc- 
tion from wages for failure to produce the standard amount; but in 
certain trades the threat of summary dismissal has even more effect 
in securing the imposition of a ' task ' than could ever be exercised by 
deductions from wages. Task-work is a variant of time-work in 
that the payment made is proportionate not to output, but to time 
spent ; but in it the common basis of the two systems appears in the 
clearest form, since a minimum output is the condition of receiving 
the time-wage." The term "task system" is often used with specific 
reference to the method of manufacturing followed in the small 
Jewish "contract shops" of New York City engaged in making men's 
coats. This system has two main characteristics. First, there is a 
"team" or "set" of workers (usually three in number), each of whom 
performs a special part of the manufacturing process; each member 
of the team has to keep up with the others, so that a faster rate of 
speed by any one of the three necessitates a faster rate by the other 
two. Second, there is fixed by the contractor or "taskmaster" who 
runs the shop a certain " task " or nimiber of coats that must be tiimed 
out in a day; this is called, and paid for as, a day's labor, although it 
may actually require fourteen or fifteen hours to perform it. By this 
means the fiction is maintained that standard daily or weekly wages 
are being paid; although actually the workers, being able to produce 
but four or five "tasks" a week, receive only a scanty piece work 
wage. Wages are reduced from time to time by the simple process 
of increasing the daily "task." As in other forms of the sweating 
SYSTEM, the workers are thus continually driven to over-exertion. 
(See Production Standards.) 

[488] 



Task Time. In connection with scientific management, this 
is the amount of time, determined by detailed tiime and motion 
STUDY, which is required for turning out a given quantity of work by 
an individual worker. It differs from the base time in that the latter 
is determined by past performance or by estimate, rather than by 
"scientific** study. The standard task must be completed within 
the "task time'* to make the worker eligible for a bonus. 

Taylor System. A "science of industrial conservation and 
a technique for increasing output and lowering production costs," 
formulated by an American engineer, Frederick W. Taylor. The dis- 
tinctive features of this system, in its broader aspects, are "the reli- 
ance on law and principle, functional foremanship, the excep- 
tion PRINCIPLE intended to aid in securing proper balance and co- 
ordination of men, and the principle of discipline for the conscious 
purpose of securing harmony rather than the mere upholding of 
authority." In its dealings with individuals, the Taylor system "lays 
special stress on the principles of selection to fit the job, individual 
training for their better accomplishment, an extension of specializa- 
tion to the utmost limit which the size of the industry permits, def- 
inite and positive control over all processes and operations, and the 
predetermined and conscious stimulation of the men to the greatest 
degree of exertion consistent with their continued health by means 
of a special reward in the form of a 'bonus,' a 'premitmi,' or a 'high 
rate* for superior accomplishment." These theories and principles 
form the underlying basis of what is now known as scientific man- 
agement, of which Taylor was the pioneer and leader. (See Emer- 
son System; Gantt System; Differential Piece Rate System; 
Taylorism.) 

Taylorism. The theory and practice of scientific manage- 
ment are sometimes so called — from the name of its pioneer pro- 
moter, Frederick W. Taylor. 

Teach -Worker. An especially competent or experienced 
worker who is employed to instruct his fellow-workers is sometimes 
so called. 

Teachers' Unions. The first American combination of school 
teachers along ordinary trade union lines was formed in 19 16, in 
Chicago. To-day about 150 locals are represented in the American 
Federation of Teachers, a national body afhHated with the Ameri- 
can Federation of Labor. The Federation of Teachers has four 
organizers actively engaged in spreading the union idea. It issues 

[ 489 ] 



an official organ, "The American Teacher." There are a number of 
teachers' unions in Great Britain, foremost of which is the National 
Union of Teachers, with about 100,000 members. The British move- 
ment possesses a propagandist and coordinating organization in the 
Teachers' Labor League. 

Team System. See Team Work. 

Team Work. In general, this term refers to the plan under 
which an article is manufactured or an industrial operation carried 
on by two or more persons working in unison, each person performing 
one particular process of the complete operation, and the group rather 
than the individual being considered as the industrial unit. "Each 
member of the group is compelled to maintain the pace set by the 
fastest, or forfeit his place by impeding the work of the whole. The 
two bricklayers at the ends of a wall put up the line as fast as they 
build their portions, and the men between must keep up with it. 
In making a coat, three men commonly work together— a machine 
operator, a baster, and an edge baster or finisher. No one may slacken 
his pace, no matter how weary or sick; for if one slackens, the work of 
the whole team is balked." Either the whole group may be paid on 
the basis of their collective output, or the most important workers 
may be paid in accordance with the results of the whole group's 
work, the others being remunerated on a time basis. In a more 
limited sense, the arrangement under which a skilled journeyman 
in any craft or occupation hires and pays his own helper (often a 
boy or girl), or works in joint agreement with another journeyman, 
is sometimes called "team work" or the "team system." The term 
"partnering" is occasionally used in a sense apparently synon3rmous 
with "team work." (See Task System; Buck or Berkshire Sys- 
tem; Companionship.) 

Technical Education. See Industrial Education. 

Technische Nothilfe. A semi-official "emergency engineer 
corps" organized for strikebreaking purposes in Germany during 
the auttmm of 19 19. It was made up mainly of technical experts, 
supplemented by skilled and unskilled workers in various occupations. 
Its main purpose was to carry on essential industries during strikes. 
Central headquarters in Berlin and district headquarters in various 
parts of Germany were maintained. Owing to trade union opposi- 
tion, the active career of the corps was brief; though it seems still to 
maintain some sort of existence. 

Ten -Day Workers. See Migratory Workers. 

[ 490 ] 



Tenants' Copartnership Societies. Cooperative associa- 
tions in England which enable members to become part owners of 
the community by investing in the company stock. The member 
lives in a house whose rent is based on expense for use, instead of 
on land-and-house-scarcity, manipulated by private enterprise for 
profits. The unearned increment of land value is used for decreasing 
rents and bettering the public services of the community. The 
member is in possession of his home for as long a time as he holds 
his investment in the company stock. Also called "copartnership 
tenancy societies." 

Tenement -House Work. In the larger American cities a 
considerable amount of industrial work is done in the homes of the 
poor, often all the members of a family devoting the greater part of 
their time to such work. Either complete articles — such as cigars, 
cigarettes, artificial flowers, garments, caps, etc. — ^may be manu- 
factured in this way, or the "finishing" of articles partly made in 
machine workshops may be carried on. Such work, characterized 
as it usually is by congestion, insanitary conditions, unregulated 
hours, and unrestricted child labor, has generally proved a menace 
to health, wage standards, and existing labor laws; and indeed it is 
inevitably associated with some of the worst evils of the sweating 
SYSTEM. As a result, several states have enacted legislation either 
prohibiting certain kinds of tenement-house work or attempting its 
regulation by licensing, registration, inspection, etc. The prohibitory 
laws have usually been declared unconstitutional by the courts, 
while attempts at regulation have in the main proved unsatisfactory. 
Tenement-house work in the manufacture of clothing for the United 
States army and navy is prohibited under a Federal statute. (See 
Home Work; Tenement Tag.) 

Tenement Tag. In the attempt to regulate tenement-house 
WORK, a few states require that whoever sells or offers for sale 
any goods (chiefly wearing apparel) made in unlicensed tenements 
shall affix to each article so made a conspicuous tag or label with the 
words "Tenement Made" legibly printed thereon, as well as the 
name of the state and city where the article was made. In New York 
the factory inspector himself affixes the tag. In some states the goods 
thus tagged or labeled cannot be sold or offered for sale; but in any 
case the implications of the tag are such that the goods are practically 
unsaleable. A similar system was adopted several years ago in New 
Zealand. 

Territorial Jurisdiction. See Jurisdiction. 

[491] 



Territorial Division of Labor. The concentration of special 
branches of production in different countries, or in different geo- 
graphical areas of the same country, according to special facilities or 
advantages provided by such countries or areas, is sometimes known 
as "territorial division of labor." (See Localization of Industry; 
Specialization.) 

Textile Schools. Technical schools for specialized instruction 
in the practical and artistic phases of the textile industry. Such 
schools are in general intended more for the training of technical 
experts, or those who wish to become superintendents or foremen, 
than for the rank and file of wage-earners. Instruction is given in 
weaving, dyeing, designing, the choice and use of materials, and 
other related matters. 

Third Internationale. See Internationale; Communist 
Internationale; Moscow International Communist Mani- 
festo; Lenin's Twenty-One Conditions; International Coun- 
cil of Trade and Industrial Unions. 

Three Eights. Denotes the working-class ideal of a day 
divided into three equal periods of eight hours each — one period for 
work, another for play, and the third for sleep. (See Eight-Hour 
Day.) 

Three -Gang Method. As a direct result of the split-fee 
system, which tempts a foreman to make constant changes in his 
labor force, there has developed in railroad and other construction 
work what is sometimes called the *' three-gang method" — that is 
to say, on any given job at any given time three separate gangs of 
laborers are or may be directly involved: one gang working on the 
job, another gang coming to work from the employment agent, and 
ajhird gang on its way back to the city. 

Three -Position Plan. As devised by the American ''efficiency 
expert" Gilbreth, this is a method of employment management 
which considers each advanced employee in an industrial organization 
as in a certain sense occupying three different positions: the one he 
previously held, the one he holds for the time being, and the one for 
which he is in line for promotion. Thus each employee is considered 
in the triple aspect of a worker, a student, and a teacher. 

Three -Rate System of Wage Payment. A form of the pre- 
mium bonus system which consists of (i) paying every worker a 
usual or customary daily wage — called the low rate; (2) paying a 

[492 ] 



bonus of ten per cent over the daily wage when a worker conforms 
to the exact method stipulated in his instruction card, but yet does 
not achieve the standard task — called the middle rate; (3) paying 
a bonus of from thirty to one hundred per cent when the worker 
achieves or exceeds the standard task — called the high rate. 

Three -Shift System. See Shift System. 

Ticket Steward. In the British building trades, a local trade 
union official who examines the men taken into employment on a 
building job, with a view to verifying their union credentials and 
standing, etc. 

Timber Wolf. A "migratory" worker (usually a member of 
the I. W. W.) in the Western Ivmaber camps is so nicknamed. 

Time Agreement. See Trade Agreement. 

Time and a Half. In connection with the increased rate of 
wages commonly paid for overtime work, this phrase denotes an 
increase of fifty per cent over the regular hourly rate for all time 
worked beyond the customary or standard limit. "Time and a 
quarter" represents a twenty-five per cent increase, while "double 
time" is twice the regular hourly rate. Where payment is made on a 
piece work basis, the terms "rate and a half," "double rate," etc., 
are commonly used in designation of parallel increases over the 
normal piece rate. 

Time and Motion Study. The essential and fundamental 
device by which scientific management aims "to discover and put 
into effect the objective facts and laws of industrial efficiency." In 
the larger and more theoretical sense, it consists, according to Pro- 
fessor Hoxie, of "little less than a universal method of attempted 
accurate industrial analysis, usable with or without the stop-watch, 
to discover, at almost every step of the productive and distributive 
process, not only the most effective material, organic, and himian 
arrangements, adaptations, and combinations, but the reasonable 
demands which can be made upon the intelligence and energy of the 
management as well as the men, and the just apportionment of the 
product to all the factors and individuals concerned." In its simpler 
practical application, it consists in the determination of the least 
possible time and the least possible expenditure of human or me- 
chanical energy required to perform an individual job or task, by 
recording, analyzing, and synthesizing the time and motions of the 
worker in each of the constituent operations, the result of this process 

[ 493 ] 



being made the basis for payment of the worker. (See Time Study ; 
Motion Study; Time-Study Man; Task; Over-All Time Study ; 
Emerson System; Gantt System.) 

Time of Wage Payment. It is generally accepted as a part 
of the wage bargain that the worker shall receive pay at the end of 
a certain period of work; in other words, he advances to his employer 
a day's work, or a week's work, or a month's work, as the case may 
be, and at the end of the time receives his pay. The longer the in- 
terval between payments, therefore, the larger is the loan which the 
worker makes to his employer without interest. Practically all foreign 
countries and two-thirds of the states in this country have attempted 
to regulate the time of wage payment, and have adopted weekly or 
fortnightly payment laws applying either to all employers or only to 
corporations or special industries. In the United States such laws 
have been often declared unconstitutional, as interfering with free- 
dom OP CONTRACT. Other forms of **time of payment laws" require 
that payment of wages shall be made during working hours, that a 
discharged employee shall be paid immediately upon discharge, and 
that an employee quitting shall be paid on the next regular pay day. 

Time Study. As inherent in all schemes of scientific man- 
agement, this process is described by G. D. H. Cole as follows: 
"Before a job is priced [i.e. before the worker's wage on the particular 
job is fixed] an expert rate-fixer will overlook the doing of the job 
under ideal conditions by a selected worker. He will note the time 
taken not merely for the operation as a whole, but for all the various 
parts of which the operation is made up — the handling time, the ma- 
chine time, and not merely these in general, but handling and machine 
times divided into the greatest possible number of distinct but con- 
nected operations. . . A study of this kind will be repeated several 
times with the same or different workmen and on the same or different 
machines. When a sufficient mass of data has been accumulated, the 
experts will proceed to work out the time that ought to be allowed 
for the doing of the job. They will add together the various times 
taken for the particular parts of the operation under test conditions . 
and will make an allowance of so much per cent on the total time 
taken, or perhaps different percentages for machine time and hand- 
ling time. These allowances will be made in order that the time 
fixed for the job may not be the least time in which the job can be 
done by a good workman under ideal conditions, but may allow a 
margin sufficient to enable the ordinary worker engaged from day 
to day upon the job to make upon it a percentage over and above his 

J 494 ] 



day-rate." The stop or split-second watch, for timing each opera- 
tion or part of an operation, is an indispensable adjunct to this proc- 
ess, which is therefore often colloquially known as ''stop-watching.'* 
(See Time and Motion Study; Over-All Time Study; Time- 
Study Man.) 

Time -Study Man. An official in an industrial plant operated 
under any system of scientific management, who conducts the 
time and motion study in the plant. Under the Taylor system, 
which involves the use of the split-second watch, he must be an 
experienced and technically trained chronometrist. 

Time Work. The system or method of wage pa3mient under 
which the worker is paid according to a unit of time — by the hour, 
day, or week — instead of according to a unit of production or unit of 
effort, as in piece work. While the two systems thus seem to be 
fundamentally opposed, they in fact possess a common basis. A time 
work system is never without relation to output, because an employer 
invariably expects a certain amount of work from the workman, 
whom he can discharge if this amount is not forthcoming. As it is 
put by Schloss, in his ''Industrial Remuneration": "Although under 
the method of time-wage the remuneration of the employee is fixed 
without any direct reference to the amount of labor which he shall 
perform within a given period, yet the performance of not less than, 
or not more than a given amount of work within a given period of 
time forms in many cases virtually a part of the contract between the 
employee working on time- wage and his employer." On the other 
hand, piece work prices are almost invariably fixed with reference 
to a time standard. When such a standard is definitely stated and 
enforced, time work passes over into the task system. The time 
work method is usually adopted when one or more of certain condi- 
tions prevail, as for example: (i) When the quantity of output is 
not easily measurable or ascertainable; (2) when the article produced 
is the joint product of several workers; (3) when delicate and costly 
machinery is used; (4) when the material utilized is expensive; 
(5) when the work is of an abnormal nature, such as repair work. 
(See Wage Payment Methods; Ovejitime; Grading System; 
Incremental Scale; Production Standards; Day Work; Hour 
Work; Week Work; Stab Work; Bonus System; Premium Bonus 
System; Horizontal Wage.) 

Timekeeping. See Clocking. 

Timing. See Time Study. 

[ 495 ) 



Timekeeping Committee. In British industry, a special 
joint committee, representing both workers and management, which 
endeavors to reduce the nimiber of absentees from work and to plan 
ways and means for increasing output. In coal-mining, such a com- 
mittee is variously known as the Pithead, Output, or Absentee 
Committee. 

Tipple Time. In connection with coal-mining, "tipple time" 
is a term used to denote the actual time during which a mine is being 
operated, as expressed in hours or in days. The "tipple" is the place 
where loaded cars from the coal pit are tipped or unloaded. 

Tolling. The practice, on a worker's part, of paying tribute 
to a foreman or superintendent for the privilege of being given em- 
plo5mient or securing promotion. (See Job Selling.) 

Tommy. Originally a popular nickname in England for a 
penny roll, then by extension for bread and provisions of any kind. 
With the introduction of the truck system, or the payment of work- 
ers in goods rather than in money, "tommy" was soon generally 
used as a synonym for that system. A "tommy shop" was an 
employer's shop conducted under the truck system; while "to tommy " 
meant to enforce that system, or to oppress or defraud workers by 
means of the system. 

Tommy Shop. See Tommy. 

Tonnage Men. Those workers in steel mills, coal mines, etc., 
who are paid on a piece work basis — that is to say, at so much per 
ton of material produced or handled — are often so called. 

Tool Insurance. In those trades where it is customary for 
workers to provide their own tools {e.g., carpentry, wood working, 
etc.) the trade union commonly insures the tools of its members 
against loss by fire or other accident. In some unions a special tool 
insurance fund is maintained apart from the regular benefit fund, 
small periodical assessments being made upon the members in sup- 
port of the fund. 

Tory. See Reactionary. 

Town Economy. This, the second historical stage in economic 
organization, is chiefly marked by the first differentiation between 
producer and consumer and by the first use of money as a medium 
of exchange. Whereas the basis of household economy is blood- 
relationship, that of town economy is contiguity. The consimier 

[496] 



under household economy is either himself a laborer or the owner of 
laborers; imder town economy he makes a direct purchase of labor 
(wage work) or of the product of labor (handicraft). There is the 
formation of, or division into, trades within the town, or a partition 
of production between town and country. Itinerant trade is succeeded 
by market trade, but the entrepreneur has not yet appeared. As 
town economy succeeded household economy, so it was in turn 
gradually superseded by national economy. (See Handicraft 
System; Guild.) 

Town Union. A labor organization whose entire membership 
consists of workers in a single town or locality. The Butte Work- 
ingmen's Union, made up of unskilled laborers employed in the 
Butte copper-mining district, is an example of this type of organiza- 
tion. It differs from an ordinary local union in that it has no affilia- 
tion with any national or international union, or with locals in any 
other cities. 

Towne System. See Gain Sharing. 

Trade. In connection with labor affairs, this term usually 
denotes either (i) a specific craft or occupation in the field of manual 
employments; or (2) the collective body of workers engaged at a 
single specific xraft or occupation. 

Trade Agreement. A formal compact resulting from collec- 
tive bargaining between an employer or group of employers and 
one or more trade unions, and dealing with wages, hours, conditions 
of employment, or any other matters connected with the relation- 
ships between employers and employees. It seeks to establish, 
through mutual and voluntary adjustments, a joint code of working 
relations that will make unnecessary any resort to the strike or 
lockout, and will tend to cooperation and industrial peace. The 
essential parts of a typical trade agreement are described by Pro- 
fessor Hoxie as follows: "(i) A preamble, defining the parties to 
the agreement, its scope or field, its duration, and its general purpose. 
(2) A legislative code, giving the working rules, etc. The points 
covered by the legislative part of the agreement range from wages 
and hours to the most minute regulation of all the technical condi- 
tions or incidents of work and pay. (3) A judicial code defining the 
mode of interpretation. (4) An executive part, providing a mode 
of enforcement. Not all trade agreements have all these distinct and 
essential parts. They range from the rudimentary ones, including the 
preamble and legislative code, to those which are most formal and 

[497] 



elaborate, containing all parts." Trade agreements may be local, 
regional, or national in scope, and they may relate to either a single 
establishment, a single craft, or an entire industr3^ They may run 
for a definite specified period (known as "time agreem.ents ") or they 
may be terminated at any time upon due notice by either side 
(called "indeterminate agreements"). It should be noted that the 
law does not usually recognize a trade agreement as a contract. 
"The courts will not usually enforce it as they enforce individual 
contracts. Such a contract, so called, will not bind anybody by the 
force of law. A contract with a trade union is not a contract in law 
— it is merely an understanding, or a usage, or a joint agreement, 
that, when the real labor contract is m.ade between individual 
employer and employee, it will be made according to the terms of 
the joint agreement. . . . The legislature might, of course, change 
the law and provide for the legal enforcement of the collective bar- 
gain. This would be compulsory arbitration. But as it now stands 
a joint trade agreement is a kind of usage or understanding agreed 
to by two opposing interests and generally enforced on individuals by 
the coercive weapons of strike, lockout, boycott, or blacklist." 
If trade agreements were legally enforceable the employing side, as 
ex-Secretary of Labor Wilson has recently pointed out, "would be 
free, in a contingency prejudicial to that side, to ignore its contract 
with impunity by restricting or stopping output as unprofitable; 
yet if the contingency were prejudicial to the wage earners, they 
could not quit work without subjecting themselves to penalties of 
the law for a breach. To permit collective bargains to be legally 
enforceable would be to discourage the making of them; to leave 
their fulfillment to the good sense and good faith of each side, would 
encourage their making and thereby promote industrial peace." 
Trade agreements are also variously known as collective, joint, 
labor, industrial, and working agreements; also as collective bar- 
gains, union contracts, and labor contracts. (See Agreement 
System; Exclusive Agreement; National Agreement; Shop 
Agreement; Standard Agreement; Wage Agreements in Ger- 
many; Trade Arbitration.) 

Trade Arbitration. Both in the United States and in Great 
Britain it is common to find boards composed of an equal number of 
representatives of organizations of employers and employees, which 
have power to decide authoritatively minor disputes between members 
of the organizations. In Great Britain these are often called boards 
of conciliation, but in this country they are more commonly known 

[498] 



as arbitration boards or arbitration committees. The term "arbi- 
tration" seems fairly applicable to the decisions of such committees, 
despite the fact that there is no appeal to any person outside the 
trade. The settlement of disputes in such cases is not reached by 
negotiation directly between the parties concerned, but by the bind- 
ing decision of higher representatives of the organizations to which 
they belong — representatives supposedly free from the personal bias 
and feelings of animosity which are likely to exist among those im- 
mediately concerned in disputes. This system of settling differences 
within the trade, without appeal to outside agencies, is often called 
** trade arbitration" or "arbitration within the trade." But even 
when outside umpires or arbitrators are called in, these phrases are 
sometimes used, as distinguishing the general system described from 
any form of state or other governmental method of arbitrating indus- 
trial disputes. (See Arbitration: Continuous Arbitration; Im- 
partial Chairman ; Impartial Machinery; Conference Boards; 
Labor Manager; Agreement System; Adjustment Board; 
Grievance Committee.) 

Trade Autonomy. See Autonomy. 

Trade Benefits. See Benefits. 

Trade Boards. Under the original British Trade Boards Act 
of 1909, these were statutory bodies set up to fix minimum wages in 
four notoriously "sweated" trades — chain-making, lace-finishing, 
box-making, and tailoring. In 19 18 the Act was amended so as to 
be applicable to other industries. As the law now stands, the Minis- 
ter of Labor, if he considers that there is no effective machinery for 
the regulation of wages throughout a trade and that in view of the 
rate of wages prevailing in it a trade board is desirable, may make 
a special order with a view to setting up a board. It is open to any 
interested party to object and to demand an inquiry, but the Minister 
has complete discretion to take whatever action he thinks best, when 
he has heard the result of the inquiry. The trade board consists of 
an equal number of representatives of employers and workers in the 
trade, to whom is added a neutral chairman, and two or four persons 
unconnected with the trade, who are known as "appointed members." , 
The size of the board depends upon the size of the trade. The board 
must fix a minimum rate or rates of wages for time work, and, where 
no other rate has yet been fixed, piece workers must be paid at rates 
sufficient to yield an ordinary worker at least as much as the minimum 
time rate. The board can fix different rates for different classes of 

[ 499 ] 



workers or for different districts. When the minimtmi wages fixed 
by a trade board have been confirmed by the Minister of Labor, 
they are enforceable by criminal proceedings, and officers are ap- 
pointed to secure their observance. The minimum rates thus become 
part of the law of the land. 

Trade Boycott. See Boycott. 

Trade Club. The oldest and simplest type of labor organ- 
ization, consisting of a comparatively small nimiber of workers fol- 
lowing the same occupation in the same locality. Historically, the 
trade club was the governmental unit of the early labor organizations, 
although in some trades the workers of a single establishment were 
grouped in a shop club, such as the printers' chapel, which was, 
and still is — an important administrative unit of the trade union. 
In America at least, the trade clubs are now extinct, having gradually 
expanded into or been absorbed by the local trade unions. 

Trade Dispute. As officially defined in the British National 
Insurance Act, a trade dispute means "any dispute between em- 
ployers and workmen or between workmen and v/orkmen, which is 
connected with the employment or non-employment, or the terms of 
employment, or with the conditions of labor, of any persons, whether 
workmen in the employment of the employer with whom the dispute 
arises or not. " (See Strike.) 

Trade Disputes Act. Following the momentous Taff Vale 
DECISION, which vitally undermined the fighting strength of British 
trade unionism, five years of agitation on the part of organized 
British labor resulted, in 1906, in the passage of a Parliamentary 
enactment known as the Trade Disputes Act. This measure, which 
is perhaps the most important piece of labor legislation in recent 
times, contains the following provisions: ''(i) An agreement or com- 
bination of two or more persons to do or procure to be done any act 
in contemplation or furtherance of a trade dispute between employ- 
ers and workmen shall not be indictable as a conspiracy if such an 
act committed by one person would not be punishable as a crime. 
An act done in piirsuance of an agreement or combination by two or 
more persons shall, if done in contemplation or furtherance of a trade 
dispute, not be actionable unless the act, if done without any such 
agreement or combination, would be actionable. (2) An action against 
a trade union, whether of workmen or masters, or against any mem- 
bers or officials thereof on behalf of themselves and all other members 
of the trade union in respect of any tortious act alleged to have been 

[500] 



committed by or on behalf of the trade union, shall not be entertained 
by any court. (3) An act done by a person in contemplation or 
furtherance of a trade dispute shall not be actionable on the ground 
only that it induces some other person to break a contract of employ- 
ment or that it is an interference with the trade, business, or employ- 
ment of some other person, or with the right of some other person to 
dispose of his capital or his labor as he wills. (4) It shall be lawful 
for one or more persons, acting either on their own behalf or on be- 
half of a trade union or of an individual employer or firm in contem- 
plation or furtherance of a trade dispute, to attend at or near a house 
or place where a person resides or works or carries on business or 
happens to be, if they so attend merely for the purpose of peacefully 
obtaining or communicating information, or of peacefully persuading 
any person to work or abstain from working. (5) Every person who, 
with a view to compel any other person to abstain from doing or to 
do any act which such other person has a legal right to do or abstain 
from doing, wrongfully and without legal authority — (a) uses violence 
to or intimidates such other person or his wife or children, or injures 
his property; or (b) persistently follows such other person about 
from place to place; or (c) hides any tools, clothes, or other property 
owned or used by the other person, or deprives him of or hinders 
him in the use thereof; or (d) watches or besets the house or other 
place where such other person resides, or works, or carries on busi- 
ness, or happens to be, or the approach to such a house or place; or 
(e) follows such other person with two or more other persons in a 
disorderly manner in or through any street or road, shall on convic- 
tion thereof by a court of simimary jurisdiction, or an indictment as 
hereinafter mentioned, be liable either to pay a penalty not exceed- 
ing twenty pounds, or to be imprisoned for a term not exceeding 
three months, with or without hard labor." It is worth noting that 
the British courts have since decided that a trade union need not be 
actually engaged in a dispute in order to gain the protection of the 
Trade Disputes Act. This measure is generally regarded as the main 
charter of British trade unionism. 

Trade Education. See Industrial Education. 

Trade Extension Schools. See Part-Time Schools. 

Trade Jurisdiction. See Jurisdiction. 

Trade Monopoly. See Monopoly Policy of Trade Unionism. 

Trade Movements. Strikes and lockouts are sometimes 
so called by trade unionists. 

[5011 



Trade Organs. Nearly every important labor organization of 
national scope in the United States issues a periodical devoted wholly 
or mainly to the organization's own interests. There are, of course, 
very broad differences of policy and of value between the journals of 
the several organizations. Many of them contain interesting dis- 
cussions, from the trade imion point of view, of important social 
questions. Others are confined entirely to the chronicling of events 
whose interest is practically confined to the members of the par- 
ticular trade concerned. Some of them publish in every issue a list 
of all the LOCALS of their organizations and of the principal local 
officers. Some devote much space to local reports of the condition 
of trade. They are generally the mediimi of the financial reports 
of the national officers, and detailed reports of accessions and losses 
of membership are often given. The great majority of the joiunals 
are published monthly. A few appear weekly. In many cases they 
are sent free to all members of the organization, and are supported 
either out of the general funds of the organization or by a special 
tax. These jovimals are usually edited by one of the regular officers 
of the national union, but in a few cases a special editor is employed. 
(See Labor Press.) 

Trade Parliament. This term is often used in England as 
synonymous with a national industrial council under the 
Whitley plan. 

Trade Preparatory Schools. See Part-Time Schools. 

Trade Privilege Benefit. As occasionally found in some 
trade unions (as for example the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters 
and Joiners) , this is in practical effect a combined strike and lockout 
benefit. 

, Trade Risk Principle. As sometimes recognized in employ- 
er's liability laws, this is the principle or conception that a large 
number of industrial accidents occur through no fault of either em- 
ployer or employee, but simply as a consequence of certain industrial 
processes, or, as it is sometimes called, the "general hazard of the 
industry"; and that the employer, as the representative of the in- 
dustry, should bear the financial burden of such accidents, rather 
than the injured worker. The social and legal recognition of this 
principle paved the way in large part for the idea of workmen's 
compensation. The term "professional risk" is sometimes used 
in designation of this principle. 

Trade Rules. See Working Rules. 

.[ S02 ] 



Trade Schools. As a direct substitute for apprenticeship, 
the trade school aims to impart a thorough practical knowledge of 
some specific trade or craft. Such schools are sometimes a part of 
the public educational system; sometimes they are organized and 
maintained under private endowment; sometimes they are carried 
on in connection with large industrial establishments, for the train- 
ing of beginners. In its simplest form, trade school instruction 
"is confined entirely or chiefly to the workshop, and consists in per- 
fecting the pupil in the practice of the manipulations and operations 
of skilled workmen at particular trades." The training may be either 
brief and intensive, or it may cover a period of three or four years. 
As a general rule, trade schools do not admit applicants under six- 
teen years of age. (See Auchmuty System; Part-Time Schools; 
Factory Schools; Railway Schools; Textile Schools; Fach- 
schulen; ficoLES Nationales Professionales.) 

Trade Tests. Methods of determining the skill or capacity 
of industrial workers — particularly applicants for jobs. The tests 
consist usually of (i) a series of questions, written answers to which 
are required; (2) pictures in which the worker is asked to identify 
tools or parts of machinery; (3) actual performance tests at the 
specific work. In addition, general intelligence tests are sometimes 
given, also tests to disclose any specialized ability. (See Rating Scale . ) 

Trade Union. Perhaps the best general definition of this 
term is that by Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Webb: "A continuous asso- 
ciation of wage-earners for the purpose of maintaining or improving 
the conditions of their working lives." Associations of this sort have 
existed in England for more than two centuries, and in the United 
States since 1792, under various names — institutions, associations, 
clubs, societies, trade clubs, trade societies, unions, union societies, 
etc. In the early thirties of the 19th century, the term trades' 
UNION began to appear in both England and the United States, in 
designation of a union of the trades in a single city. Later, in the 
form "trade union," the term was turned back and applied to the 
separate trade clubs or trade societies, and then to the national or 
international unions of local societies in the same trade. When the 
local American trade unions of a single city again began to unite in 
the sixties, the resulting combinations were called "trades' assem- 
blies," "central labor unions," etc. Now the general term central 
BODIES or CITY CENTRALS is uscd in the United States to designate 
what were the "trades' unions" of the thirties and the "trades' 
assemblies," etc., of the sixties, and the terms "trades union" and 

I 503 1 



"trade union" are used interchangeably in designation of any form 
of organization on the part of wage-earners "to improve or maintain 
the conditions of their working lives." Geographically speaking, a 
trade union may be either (i) local, including the workers of a single 
town or city; (2) district, covering a larger territorial subdivision of 
a country; (3) national, covering an entire country; (4) continental, 
as in the case of the so-called American "international" unions 
which maintain local units in Canada or Mexico; (5) intercontinental, 
as in the case of those British unions which maintain branches in 
America and other EngHsh-speaking countries; or (6) international, 
as in the case of the International Miners' Federation, which covers 
practically the entire world. The craft union and the industrial 
UNION represent the two main structural types of trade union or- 
ganization; although these, like the main functional types (business 
UNIONISM, revolutionary UNIONISM, UPLIFT UNIONISM, etc.) tend 
to overlap or vary in such a way that strict classification is difficult 
without formulating several sub-species. According to Professor 
Hoxie, the trade union "goes back in its genesis ultimately to the 
common needs and problems of the wageworkers; it arises immedi- 
ately out of the consciousness of the common or group character of 
those needs and problems; it exists for common action looking to 
the betterment of the living conditions; it appears primarily as a 
group interpretation of the social situation in which the workers find 
themselves, and a remedial program in the form of aims, policies, and 
methods; the organization and the specific form or structure which 
it takes are merely the instruments which the group adopts for propa- 
gating its viewpoint and putting its program into effect." Among 
modem social theorists, the conception of the trade union ranges 
from that of a useful means of raising wages and shortening hours in 
industry, to that of the sole instrument for the abolition of capitalism 
and the wage system. But whether its ultimate aims be "peaceful " 
or "revolutionary," the immediate and fundamental object of a trade 
union is to put the seller of labor on an equality with the buyer as 
regards bargaining strength. The individual worker lacks any re- 
serve that will enable him to hold out for a fair price for his labor. 
By associating with other workers and forming a common fund, he 
can place a "reserve price" on his labor, because his union will main- 
tain him while he refuses to work at less than the standard rate. 
The individual worker sells labor retail, while the employer buys it 
wholesale. By associating with the other workers in his trade, the 
seller is put on at least an approximate equality with the buyer; the 
employer is no longer dealing with an isolated worker, constrained 

[ 504 ] 



by necessity to take any terms offered him, but with an organized 
group which can in large degree sell or refrain from selling its joint 
services on the merits of the terms offered it. The individual 
worker, as a rule, lacks experience in bargaining and is ignorant of 
general conditions in the labor market. By associating with other 
workers, he is able to secure the services of an expert negotiator, 
familiar with the psychology and methods of bargaining, whose 
purpose it is to make the best possible terms for the group 
which he represents. These are the chief economic reasons that 
make for the group association of workers in a trade union. 
(See Local; Labor Union; District Union; General Labor 
Unions; Compound Craft Union; Material Trade Union; 
Town Union; Mixed Union; Closed Union; Dual Union; 
Plant Union; Rump Union; Sex Unions; Teachers' Unions; 
Middle-Class Unions; Outside Union; Regular Union; Com- 
pany Union; Christian Unions; Social Democratic Unions; 
Red Union; Yellow Union; Black Union; Syndicat; Brother- 
hood; Society; Unionization.) 

Trade Union Act of 1871. A British Parliamentary enact- 
ment which, together with certain amendments and modifications 
contained in the Trade Union Act of 1876, for the first time clearly 
legalized the status of British trade unionism by providing that a 
trade union should not be held to be unlawful merely because its ob- 
jects are in "restraint of trade." This carried with it the legal recog- 
nition of agreements made by trade unions. But the Act also con- 
tained a descriptive clause which (as modified by the Act of 1876) 
defined a trade union as an association existing for the regulation of 
the relations between workmen and masters, or between workmen and 
workmen, or between masters and masters, or the imposing of re- 
strictive conditions on the conduct of any trade or business, and the 
provision of benefits to members. This definition made no allow- 
ance for the political activities which later became so important a 
part of British trade unionism; and upon this fact was based the 
obnoxious Osborne judgment of 1909. 

Trade Union Act of 1876. See Trade Union Act op 1871. 

Trade Union Act of 1913. A British Parliamentary enact- 
ment which in part at least removed the serious limitations placed 
upon organized British labor by the Osborne judgment. Under this 
statute, a trade union is authorized to include in its objects, on cer- 
tain defined conditions, the expenditure of money on candidatures 

[505] 



for Parliament or any public office, and on the distribution of liter- 
ature, the holding of meetings, electoral registration work, and the 
maintenance of elected representatives. The conditions are: (i) 
That a ballot of the union must first have been taken, and a majority 
of those voting have declared in favor of such political action; (2) 
that the political fund must be kept separate, and no member 
obliged to contribute to it if he gives notice that he objects; and 
(3) that contribution to this political fund must not be made a condi- 
tion of admission to the union, nor must any member who refuses to 
contribute be penalized on that account by being excluded from any 
benefits or put under any disability or disadvantage as compared 
with his fellows. (See Trade Union Act of 187 i.) 

Trade Union (Amalgamation) Act. A British Parliamentary 
enactment of 191 7, which removed in part some of the legal difficulties 
regarding trade union amalgamation embodied in previous Trade 
Union Acts. Until this measure was passed, two trade unions could 
not amalgamate unless such action had been approved by a two- 
thirds vote of all the members of each union. Under the act of 191 7, 
the am.algamation proposal must be voted on by at least fifty per cent 
of the membership of each union, and must be approved by at least 
a twenty per cent majority of those voting. 

Trade Union College of Washington, D. C. Organized in 
May, 19 1 9, by a group of trade unionists and others interested in 
WORKING-CLASS EDUCATION. As sct forth in its constitution, "the 
object of the college shall be to provide educational opportunities for 
those who work for a livelihood, by establishing lecture and study 
courses or by such other methods as may seem practicable. Active 
membership shall be confined to local unions which are, either directly 
or through a national or international union, affiliated with the 
American Federation of Labor." A varied list of courses was 
given during the first year, including English composition and liter- 
ature, political science, law, and industrial subjects. 

Trade Union Cooperation. While cooperation is commonly 
considered as one phase of the labor movement, having been initi- 
ated and mainly developed by the working classes, its direct associa- 
tion with trade unionism has until recently been largely of a desultory 
and sporadic nature in the United States. As far as definite organiza- 
tion on any considerable scale is concerned, the first stages of trade 
union cooperation may be associated with the Sovereigns of In- 
dustry (1274-1879), vv'hich established several stores under the 

[ 506 ] 



Rochdale plan. The Knights of Labor and other organizations 
carried on experiments in producers' cooperation; but except as 
a temporary expedient in time of strikes they met with little success. 
During the past ten years, however, there has been a marked develop- 
ment of trade union cooperation, particularly on the producing side; 
and it promises to play a most important part in the futtire of trade 
unionism. Several unions now own and operate large cooperative 
factories, principally for supplying articles of wearing apparel to 
members of the unions. In Seattle, the federated trade unions own 
and operate a general store, a slaughter-house and meat-packing 
establishment, a market, a bank, a laundry, a printing shop, a res- 
taurant, a milk condensary, several shingle mills, a fish cannery, a 
jewelry factory, and a number of recreation centres. The Brother- 
hood of Locomotive Engineers recently opened in Cleveland, Ohio, 
a cooperative national bank, capitalized at one million dollars. 
In several European countries the cooperative movement is either 
wholly or largely identified with the organized labor movement. 

Trade Union Government — LocaL While variations of de- 
tail are found in different organizations, the government of local 
labor bodies in the United States conforms in main outline with the 
following summary, taken from Glocker's "Government of American 
Trade Unions": ''The government of a local union is essentially 
government by mass-meeting. The whole body of members, assem- 
bling each month, each fortnight, or oftener, is the final authority 
for the transaction of all business, — legislative, executive, and judi- 
cial. The general meeting may adopt amendments to the by-laws, 
may suspend or expel a member, may order the purchase of an account 
book, or miay declare a strike. . . . The general meeting has been 
very reluctant to delegate any of its powers; but of necessity various 
boards and committees have gradually been created. Many of 
these committees are appointed for a particular purpose, and are 
discharged when that purpose has been attained. Nevertheless, 
certain standing committees have also emerged, the most important 
of which is the executive committee. This board exercises a wide 
though varying number of specially delegated powers, but any of 
its decisions may be overruled by the general meeting. . . . Another 
important committee of the local union is the judiciary or grievance 
committee, which considers charges. Sometimes a special committee 
is created when a member is brought to trial. Occasionally the 
executive board is vested with this judicial authority, but more fre- 
quently a special standing committee exists for this purpose. Another 

[507] 



standing committee is the membership committee; another is the 
finance committee, one of whose most important duties is to audit 
the accounts of the officers having charge of the funds. The officers 
of the local union are commonly a president, who is chairman at 
meetings of the society, a vice-president, a recording secretary, a 
treasurer, a corresponding secretary, and frequently also a financial 
secretary who keeps account of receipts and expenditures. Some- 
times the recording secretary acts as corresponding or as financial 
secretary; sometimes the offices of corresponding secretary and 
financial secretary are combined. Usually the local officers are un- 
paid, or are paid a nominal sum. They work at their trade, and 
perform their official duties during spare time. The duties of the 
local and financial secretary are exceptionally onerous in unions 
which, like the Cigar Makers, maintain a variety of benefits, and 
many of the larger local unions in such trades pay him a salary. 
The paid financial secretary devotes his entire time to the tmion, 
and receives usually the rate of wages prevailing in the trade. Not 
only does he keep the financial accounts, but he also performs in 
many instances the work of corresponding secretary, recording 
secretary, and treasurer. The other paid official in the local union 
is the WALKING DELEGATE or, as the trade unionists prefer to call 
him, the business agent. The business agent adjusts disputes 
between employers and their workmen, and thus replaces the com- 
mittees of the shops and local union which would otherwise perform 
this service." (See Admittance to the Trade Union; Finances 
OF Trade Unions; Discipline; Strike Control; Steward; Shop 
Steward; Autonomy; Centralization.) 

Trade Union Government — ^National. There are four main 
factors in the governmental machinery of an American, national 
or international union — the national convention, the national 
officers, the general executive board, and the initiative and 
referendum. The comparative importance of these four factors 
varies considerably in different unions, but the general tendency has 
been toward a gradual shifting of chief authority from the first- 
named factor in the group to the last-named. This shifting process, 
as described in docker's "Government of American Trade Unions,'* 
"may be marked off into three very roughly defined stages. During 
the first of these, the representative assembly has been the chief, in 
fact, almost the sole organ of government. . . . The amount of execu- 
tive work is very limited, and the few unpaid officials are elected from 
among the delegates at the convention primarily for the performance 

[508] 



of certain services at its sessions, and they have few or no other duties. 
The second stage appears with the growth of the activities of the 
central organization, and is marked by the creation of certain paid 
and unpaid officials and boards of management which levy assess- 
ments, sanction the declaration of strikes, perform innumerable de- 
tailed executive duties, make judicial decisions, and sometimes exer- 
cise a limited legislative power during the period between conven- 
tions. The representative assembly remains, however, the highest 
authority in the organization. ... At the same time, the influence of 
the paid officers over the convention grows rapidly. Giving their 
entire time to the work of the union, these officials gain an intimate 
knowledge of the conditions of the trade and the internal affairs of 
the association, and the delegates must rely greatly on their judg- 
ment. ... In the third stage, government by popular vote is substi- 
tuted for government by the representatives. . . . Some unions have 
abolished conventions, or convoke them at infrequent intervals. 
Another group continues to hold conventions regularly, but submits 
all enactments of that body to the vote of the members. A few unions 
require that appeals from judicial and strike decisions of the officers 
be made no longer to the convention but to the general membership. 
In others the only change has been that the officers are now elected 
by vote of the members, and not as formerly by convention. In 
another fairly large group the referendimi is used merely to adopt 
emergency legislation between the sessions of the representative 
assembly, and since the representatives are at liberty to revoke or 
amend such emergency legislation, the power of convention is in no 
wise limited. Finally, there remains a considerable niimber of unions 
which refer no questions of any kind to popular vote, and in these 
the convention continues to be the primary organ of government." 
(See Deputy System; Discipline; Finances of Trade Unions; 
Strike Control; Autonomy; Centralization.) 

Trade Union Internationale. See International Feder- 
ation OF Trade Unions; International Council of Trade 
AND Industrial Unions. 

Trade Union Organization in Russia. The structure of the 
All-Russia Metal Workers' Union, one of the twenty-three national 
trade unions or "All-Russia Professional Alliances" into which 
practically all Russian workers "by hand or brain" are organized, 
is thus outlined by the secretary of its Central Committee: "The 
Metal Workers' Union at the present moment is a national organiza- 
tion which embraces all those engaged in the metal and metal work- 

[ 509 ] 



ing industry. All workers engaged in obtaining metal from the mines 
and working this metal in any form, from smelting to the making of 
machines and metal implements, are included in our Union. Besides 
this it includes all occupations in a metallurgical or metal-working 
undertaking irrespective of category or trade. Thus, our members 
include skilled and unskilled workers, the office staff, technicians, 
and enginers ; workers engaged on different crafts in the metal works, 
as the wood mould makers for instance, are all included in our 
union. This principle of industrial organization was accepted by the 
union in 191 7, and to a considerable degree constituted our strength 
in the revolutionary class struggle. At the present moment it is an 
essential condition of the work of the union in organizing the metal 
industry on socialist foundations. . . . The scheme of organization of 
the metal workers' union is based on the following: The primary 
organization is the factory committee. This is elected every six 
months at a general meeting of workers and employees and generally 
consists of from 5 to 11 members. The main task of the committee 
is to carry out all the trade union regulations in the factory ; it deals 
with the protection of labor, trade union agitation and propaganda, 
supplies the workers with necessities, clothes as well as articles of 
general consumption, and maintains the fundamental basis of trade 
union and industrial discipline among the members of the imion. 
The Conference of Factory Committees of a given industrial area, 
usually a territorial area a little smaller than a ' government ' {guber- 
nia), is the higher directing organ within that area. This conference 
elects the regional committee which manages these regional branches 
of the All-Russia Union of Metal Workers. Usually these com- 
mittees are in the industrial centres of the regions. As subsidiary 
machinery the regional Committee may have its agents in the various 
towns embraced by it, but these are not obligatory; such agents are 
usually elected at local meetings of the members and carry out the 
instructions of the higher organ. The Congress of the union is held 
once a year; the representatives at this conference are elected at 
regional conferences on the basis of strict proportion of one delegate 
to every 2,000 members. The Conference elects the central com- 
mittee of the union. The regulations of the Congress and, in the in- 
tervals between congresses, the regulations of the Central Com- 
mittee, are obligatory upon all the organs of the union and upon all 
the members. The union also allows the organization of sections for 
those categories of labor the working conditions of which are to some 
extent peculiar, or to those who have comparatively recently entered 
into the organization. These sections are organized in the form of 

Isio] 



elected subsidiary organs attached to the general trade union, but 
they have not the right to carry out any independent resolutions with- 
out the sanction of the union, nor can they have separate funds. . . . 
The metal workers' union is in this manner one complete organiza- 
tion, strongly welded by the common interests of the metal working 
industry." (See Trade Unions in Russia.) 

Trade Union Survey. See Labor Research Department. 

Trade Unions in Russia. Before the revolution of 191 7 
trade unions were under the Czarist ban, and in February, 191 7, 
there were said to be only three trade unions in Russia, with a com- 
bined membership of 1,385. With the installation of a working-class 
government under the Bolsheviki, trade unions immediately sprang 
into being as one of the most vital national factors. Under the Soviet 
labor code every Russian wage earner must become a member of a 
trade union, whereupon he is assigned by the "valuation committee" 
of his union to a certain trade and class. The trade unions embrace 
all persons, without exception, who are engaged in "socially valua- 
ble" work of whatever sort. Organization is along the broadest lines 
of industrial unionism. All workers of a given industry — skilled 
and unskilled, men and women, manual workers, clerks, technical 
engineers, etc. — are grouped in a single trade union of national scope. 
There are now twenty-three of these national organizations, or "pro- 
fessional alliances," embracing practically the entire working-force 
of Russia, "manual" and "mental" workers alike. The nucleus of a 
national or "All-Russia" professional alliance is the factory com- 
mittee; all factory committees of a given district unite to form a 
branch of the national body; all branches in a given province unite 
to form a provincial department; and these factory committees, 
branches, and departments make up the national trade union. The 
national unions are federated in an All-Russian Council of Pro- 
fessional Alliances. In order to understand the Russian trade 
union movement it is necessary to bear in mind that (i) there are no 
craft unions or craft guilds and no yellow unions in Russia ; and 
(2) there are no trade unions outside of those federated in the All- 
Russian Council of Professional Alliances. The trade unions of Russia, 
unlike those of any other country, exercise an important political 
function, in that they are an essential part of the Soviet govern- 
mental machinery. Their economic functions are also of wider scope 
and greater importance than those of any other country. They par- 
ticipate directly in the management of factories and industry, and 
play a leading part in the fixing of wage scales, the regulation of 

[511] 



SANITATION AND SAFETY, the COtltrol of SOCIAL INSURANCE and 

WORKING-CLASS EDUCATION, ctc, Bom of the revolution, they have 
been and still remain the heart of the revolutionary movement and 
the foundation upon which the whole structure of the Russian Re- 
public is reared. (See Trade Union Organization in Russia; 
Workers* Control in Russia.) 

Trade Unionism. The continuous movement or effort on the 
part of wage-earners to maintain and improve the conditions of their 
working lives through group organization and association. Trade 
unionism is no more than a single manifestation of a universal social 
tendency — "the tendency of men of similar temperament and similar 
environment and interest to get together for common action." Mr. 
and Mrs. Webb, in their standard work on "Industrial Democracy," 
distinguish three principal "instruments or levers" by which trade 
imionism seeks to attain its ends; these they call the method of 
MUTUAL insurance, the method of collective bargaining, and 
the method of legal enactment. The actual regulations which 
trade unionism endeavors to enforce through these "methods" are 
divided by the same authors under seven main heads, as follows: 
The standard rate, the normal day, sanitation and safety, 

INTRODUCTION OF NEW PROCESSES, CONTINUITY OF EMPLOYMENT, the 

entrance INTO A TRADE, and the RIGHT TO A TRADE. All thcsc regu- 
lations they conceive to be embodied in two main "expedients" of 
trade unionism — "the device of the common rule" and "the device 
of RESTRICTION OF NUMBERS." The Webb terminology, as indicated 
above, has been adopted by nearly all later writers. In every coun- 
try present-day trade unionism divides into two main camps or cur- 
rents. One, comprising the conservative forces, accepts the existing 
economic, political, and social order, and merely seeks the gradual 
improvement of working-class conditions within that order by means 
of POLITICAL ACTION, coopcration with employers, etc. The other 
main division refuses to accept present arrangements as either just 
or desirable, and seeks a revolutionary reconstruction of society along 
new lines designed to give the worker full control over the conditions 
of his working life and the full product of his individual labors. The 
recent growth and extent of trade imionism may best be judged from 
a statistical study lately made by the International Labor Office 
of the League of Nations ("The Growth of Trade Unionism during 
the Ten Years, 1910-1919"). This study covered all important 
countries of the world with the exception of Russia, for which no 
figures are available, and China, Japan, and India, where trade 

[512] 



unionism has as yet made little development. According to this 
study, the total number of trade unionists at the close of 19 19 in the 
twenty leading countries covered by the study was 32,680,000; as 
compared with 10,835,000 at the end of 1910, and 14,728,000 at the 
end of 1 913. From these figures it will be seen that trade union mem- 
bership in the twenty countries at the end of 19 19 was three times as 
large as that at the end of 19 10, and more than twice as large as that 
at the end of 19 13, just before the war. A small part of the increase 
is due to the greater completeness of the returns, and another small 
part (probably about ten per cent) to the natural growth of popu- 
lation; but even allowing for these two factors, there has been an 
enormous growth in trade unionism among the workers. The growth 
is common to all countries. Diu-ing the war unionism received a 
check, especially in the belligerent countries. The decline was 
especially great in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Italy, and Czecho- 
slovakia ; but in all these countries trade union membership began to 
increase in 191 7. The end of the year 19 19 saw a phenomenal in- 
crease, especially in the central European States. For European 
countries only, the membership at the end of 19 19 may be put at 
26,000,000 at least, as compared with about 8,500,000 at the end of 
1 9 10. Of the total membership of 32,680,000 shown above, it is 
interesting to note that for five of the twenty countries included, 
namely, Great Britain, Germany, the United States, France, and 
Italy, the total trade union membership in 19 19 amounted to nearly 
27,000,000, leaving about 5,500,000 for the remaining fifteen coun- 
tries. (For accounts of the chief forms of trade unionism, see Busi- 
ness Unionism; Revolutionary Unionism; Craft Unionism; 
Industrial Unionism; Dependent Unionism; Employmental 
Unionism; Uplift Unionism; Predatory Unionism; Class 
Unionism; Mass Unionism; Marxian Industrial Unionism; 
Pure and Simple Unionism; New Unionism; Old Unionism; New 
Model of Trade Unionism; Dual Unionism. See also Interna- 
tional Trade Unionism.) 

Trades Council — ^American. While any delegate body repre- 
sentative of several trade unions in a single locality or district is 
sometimes called a "trades council," this term is more commonly 
used in designation of one of the two main varieties of such bodies— 
that which is representative of several trade unions in related or 
allied trades, more properly known as an "allied trades council." 
In the building, printing, and metal trades are to be found the most 
conspicuous types of trades councils in this sense. Such bodies have 

[S13] 



a plain economic basis, in that they represent men who work for the 
same employers or for employers who cooperate in the same industry. 
Their technical and industrial relations give them strength in united 
action. The sympathetic strike, as it develops under their influ- 
ence, is a formidable weapon. The building industry seems to offer 
the best field for them, and it is chiefly there that they have gained 
importance and have effected a marked improvement in the workman's 
condition. Trades councils often have power to determine local 
JURISDICTION and discipline local unions for violations ; to act for the 
locals in making local agreements with employers ; to act together in 
disciplining employers by strike or otherwise; and to assist employers 
in securing and maintaining monopoly of the field. (See Building 
Trades Councils; Metal Trades Councils; Allied Printing 
Trades Councils.) 

Trades Council — British. A delegate body representative 
of several trade unions in a town or district, the principle of com- 
bination being locality, not occupation. There are now about five 
hundred such trades councils in Great Britain, with an aggregate 
affiliated membership of several millions of trade unionists. Since 
1895 "they have been excluded from representation in the Trades 
Union Congress, but they are admitted as constituent units of the 
British Labor Party. Their functions are thus described in Mr. 
and Mrs. Webb's "History of Trade Unionism": "Apart from their 
constant activity in municipal politics, and their energetic support 
of the Labor Party in all elections, the Trades Councils have, in the 
present century, considerably increased in usefulness. They have 
given valuable assistance in Trade Union propaganda, alike within 
their own districts and in the adjacent rural districts. No small part 
of the increase in Trade Union membership, notably among nonde- 
script workers in the towns, and the agricultural laborers in the 
country, is to be ascribed to the constant work and support of some 
of the more active among them. They have done much to appease 
quarrels among the local branches of different Unions, and they are 
occasionally able to intervene successfully as arbitrators. Even 
without formal arbitration they bring warring parties together. 
They nominate working-class representatives to many local com- 
mittees and conferences, and serve in this way as useful links with 
public administration. Some of them have, of recent years, done a 
great deal to promote the better education of the artisan class." 
Both in organization and in functions, the British trades councils 
bear a strong resemblance to the American city centrals. (See 
Local Labor Parties; Labor Representation Committees.) 

[514] 



Trades Union. Ordinarily the terms "trades union" and 
"trade union" are now used in a synonymous sense. Some writers, 
however, still maintain a former distinction, and apply the term 
"trades union" specifically to a federation of trade unions in various 
crafts or industries — as typified, for example, by a city central 

or a STATE FEDERATION OF LABOR. 

Trades Union Congress. The great national federation or 
parliament of organized British labor, holding annual meetings of 
delegates from all the important trade unions of the country, together 
with special meetings called from time to time. The Congress 
originated in 1868. Any bona fide union is entitled to be represented 
by delegates and to vote in accordance with its numerical strength. 
Membership is not compulsory, and a few important national unions 
are still unaffiliated. Trades councils have been excluded since 
1895. At the meetings of the Congress, each constituent union is 
represented by one delegate for every 5000 members or fraction 
thereof. Voting on important questions is on the principle of one 
vote for every 1000 members represented; and the decisions arrived 
at must be ratified by the separate constituent bodies represented in 
the Congress, before they have binding effect. The value of the Con- 
gress lies first in the opportunity afforded for debate, for exchange of 
opinion, and for social intercourse, and secondly, in the appointment 
and instruction of its executive, the Parliamentary Committee. 
This body, consisting of sixteen members, with a paid secretary, 
elected annually by the whole assembly, is charged with the duties 
of watching all legislation directly affecting labor, initiating such 
legislative action as the Congress may direct, and preparing the 
programme of the Congress. It also transacts all the necessary 
business between the Congresses, and is thus a supreme executive 
council of the British trade union movement. In addition, a Joint 
Board consisting of representatives of the Parliamentary Committee, 
the British Labor Party, and the General Federation of Trade 
Unions meets occasionally for the discussion and formulation of 
common policies. Six and a half million workers "by hand or brain " 
were represented in the September, 1920, meeting of the Trades 
Union Congress. One of the most important actions taken at this 
meeting was the approval of the scheme for a General Council to 
replace the Parliamentary Committee. This plan provides for a 
central coordinating body representing the whole trade union move- 
ment, to consist of thirty members, elected from seventeen trade 
union groups arranged by industries and represented on the Council 

[515] 



according to their numerical strength. Two representatives of wom- 
en's trade unions will be included. The General Council will be in 
turn divided into five sub-committees, grouped according to indus- 
tries; and each sub-committee, with a specialized salaried officer, 
will ultimately form a department of information, coordination, 
etc., for the particular group of trade unions and industries which it 
represents. The main general objects of the Council are stated to 
be "to keep watch over all industrial movements and where possible 
correlate industrial action; to promote common action on any gen- 
eral questions that might arise and assist any union attacked on any 
vital question of trade-union principle ; to use its influence to promote 
settlement of disputes between trade-unions; assist trade-union or- 
ganizations; carry on propaganda, and enter into relations with 
trade-union and labor movements in other countries." 

Tramp Benefits. See Travelling Benefits. 
Tramp Card. See Travelling Card. 

Tramp Industries. Those in which casual labor or migratory 
LABOR is largely employed.. Lumbering is a typical tramp industry, 
particularly in the West. 

Transfer Card. When a member in good standing of any local 
branch of a national or international trade union moves to another 
town in which there is also a local of the same national or inter- 
national organization, he is generally given a "transfer card" which 
entitles him to membership in the local of his new town without 
payment of the usual initiation fee. This card is sometimes called 
a "clear card," the implication being that the member is "clear" 
of debts to the local issuing the card. "Clearance card" is another 
variant. In 1906 the International Miners' Federation adopted a 
uniform transfer card which is recognized by miners' unions through- 
out the world. (See Combination Card; Card System.) 

Transport Workers. In England, a common designation for 
all classes of workers engaged in the transport industry, other than 
railway workers. It includes sailors, marine engineers and firemen, 
DOCKERS and other waterside workers, carters and motor truck 
drivers, etc. The chief unions of these workers are federated in the 
National Transport Workers' Federation — a member of the famous 
Triple Alliance. 

Travelling Benefits. Payments or loans made generally by 
a trade union, but in some European countries by the government, 
to enable an unemployed laborer to travel to another place where 

[516] 



employment is promised or probable. Travelling benefits are usually- 
provided in any comprehensive scheme of unemployment insur- 
ance. Some British unions also make what are known as "emigra- 
tion allowances" or "emigration benefits" — grants to members who 
are going abroad to better their economic status. Travelling benefits 
were often formerly, and occasionally are still, referred to as "tramp 
benefits." (See Travelling Card.) 

Travelling Book. See Travelling Card. 

Travelling Card, (i) In America, a card issued to trade 
unionists whose work takes them to various parts of the country, or 
who are travelling in search of employment, on account of death or 
sickness, or for the transaction of trade union business. This card 
indicates that the bearer is a member in good standing of some local 
branch of his national organization, and entitles him to temporary 
membership in locals of the samie national union in other towns, 
without payment of the usual initiation fee. (2) In England, a 
card or small book of receipt forms issued to a trade union member 
who must leave his own town in search of work. It entitles him for a 
limited period to lodging and a meal in those towns where his na- 
tional union maintains local branches such towns being sometimes 
known as "relief towns" on this account. "Tramp card" and 
"blank" are alternate names for the English "travelling card." 
(See Combination Card; Card System.) 

Travelling Witnesses. In I. W. W. circles, this term is used 
in designation of certain ex-members of the I. W. W. organization 
who travel about at public expense from one locality to another, 
wherever prosecutions of I. W. W. members are in progress, for the 
purpose of giving testimony (usually of a luridly sensational charac- 
ter) against the organization. 

Trespass. See Overlap. 

Trial Board or Trial Committee. See Discipline. 

Trick. See Shift System. 

Tripartite Control. Denotes the representation of workers, 
capitalists, and consumers in the management of industry. The con- 
sumers' interests, also known as the public interest, first achieved 
recognition in wage boards for the arbitration of industrial disputes 
or the establishment of living standards, and the public thus came to 
be recognized as a legitimate third party. Tripartite control extends 
34 [517] 



this principle to the sphere of industrial management. (See Unitary 
Control; Plumb Plan.) 

Triple Alliance. This, the first great inter-industrial feder- 
ation in the British labor movement, was formed in 1913, and is made 
up of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain, the National Union of 
Railwa3anen, and the National Transport Workers' Federation. It 
represents a combined membership of more than a million and a 
half, or perhaps one-sixth of the entire adult male labor of the nation. 
The object of this great organization is to secure joint action and a 
common policy in connection with any industrial dispute of national 
extent. The three industries concerned are of course closely inter- 
related, and a strike in any one of them is bound seriously to affect 
the other two. But while its tremendous potential strength has often 
counted to good purpose in negotiations with employers and the 
government, the Triple Alliance has never yet been put to a direct 
and practical test. "To some extent," wrote G. D. H. Cole in 19 18, 
"the very power of the machine presents an obstacle to its use, and 
its makers are fearful of the Frankenstein that they have made." 
This was the precise case in the great British coal strike of 192 1. 
After fixing a definite date for "coming out" in the miners' behalf, 
the railwaymen and transport workers, seemingly overawed by the 
possible results of their action, made an eleventh hour reversal of 
their decision, and the Triple Alliance once more failed to fulfill its 
purpose. But while these events have seriously shaken the organiza- 
tion, there has as yet been no formal dissolution. In America, the 
term "triple alliance" has been applied at different times to several 
loose and shifting combinations of trade unions, farmers' organiza- 
tions, and RAILWAY BROTHERHOODS. (See Transport Workers; 
All Grades Movement.) 

Truck Acts. See Truck System. 

Truck System. The pajmient of wages in goods or services 
rather than money. This system goes back a long way in English 
industrial history; but various Parliamentary Truck Acts (1831, 
1887, 1896) have now largely done away with it in Great Britain. In 
the United States, the truck system is mainly associated with the 
COMPANY store and company housing. Where the employer owns 
the store from which his employees are required to purchase their 
food, clothing, and supplies, or owns the houses in which they are 
required to reside, wages are often paid in cash only to the extent 
of such balances as may remain to the credit of the employee 

[518) 



after deducting his charges at the store or for rent. Even when 
wages are paid in cash, the employees are sometimes virtually com- 
pelled to deal at stores or to live in houses owned or controlled by 
the employer. Various state laws either prohibit the truck system 
altogether or else restrict it in an effort to prevent coercion, extortion, 
etc. But even when such laws are not declared unconstitutional (as 
they often have been), there is an inherent difficulty in enforcing the 
penalties of the law upon the employer, since prosecution must usually 
be instituted by the employee or by some one in his behalf. In either 
case the certainty of discharge makes him anxious to avoid the 
prosecution. Consequently almost the only cases where the law is 
enforced are in those industries where a strong labor organization 
has taken up the issue; and even then the result is not usually ac- 
complished by a legal prosecution but by the ordinary direct influence 
of the union. In England the word ** truck" is often used as a syno- 
n5mi for the truck system. Also called ' * order system ' * and * ' payment 
in kind." (See Tommy; Script; Living-In System.) 

Trust. As commonly understood in the United States, a 
trust is a permanent combination of capital on the part of several 
business enterprises, in number sufficient to represent a majority of 
those producing a given commodity or performing a given service. 
The principal object of such a combination is manifestly to control 
the production and price of its product; or in case of a combination 
of public utility companies, to dominate the territory affected, in 
the matter of rates and service. The term had its origin in the form 
of organization adopted in 1882, to combine the interests of competing 
producers of oil. The stockholders of all the corporations which 
were parties to the agreement placed all their shares of stock in the 
hands of trustees and received in exchange trust certificates. These 
trustees had absolute power of voting the stock that was placed 
in their hands, and were therefore able to control the policy of each 
corporation which entered into the agreement. This form of combi- 
nation was known as a "voting trust " ; but because of legal difficulties, 
it soon gave way to the "holding company" method, under which 
a new corporation is formed, with power to purchase either for cash 
or with its own stock the stocks of the several companies included 
in the trust, the relation of trustee and trust thus being changed to 
that of owner and property, and the board of trustees giving way to 
a board of directors. Practically all present-day trusts are organized 
on this plan; but it should be noted that not all so-called "holding 
companies" are trusts, some being formed for purely financial serv- 

[S19]. 



ices. In relation to trade unionism, the trust presents a problem 
of peculiar difficulty. "It is here," says Dr. Weyforth, "that the 
employee labors under the greatest disadvantage in competition with 
thousands of his fellow workers under the process of individual 
BARGAINING with the employer, who possess the advantage of having 
a restricted field of competing employers bidding for the same labor 
that he desires. It seems that here above all is the place where trade 
unionism is necessary for the purposes of collective bargaining. 
In just this field, however, are to be found the most glaring examples 
of its complete break-down. The fundamental factor in this situation 
is the superior strategical strength of the employer under such form 
of business organization. This superior strategical strength is due 
to three causes: (i) the greater financial resources of the trust and 
the difficulty of the union in obtaining a substantial foothold in the 
industry; (2) the control by the trust over a number of plants; (3) 
the restriction of the area of employment for the men." While a few 
national unions have combated the trust with a considerable degree 
of success, trade unionism has for the most part made little progress 
in this field. As a consequence, some of the worst labor conditions 
of today are to be found in certain "trustified" industries. 

Trusteeing of Wages. See Garnishment of Wages. 

Turn List or Turn Bulletin. A trade union device for 
ensuring an equal division of work among imion members dtiring a 
period of slack production. In the joint interstate agreements 
IN bituminous coal-mining, for example, it is usually provided 
that "the operator shall see that an equal turn is offered each 
miner and that he be given a fair chance to obtain the same. The 
CHECKWEiGHMAN shall keep a turn bulletin for the turn keeper's 
guidance." (See Work Sharing.) _ 

Turn System. See Shift System. 

Turnout. A strike is often thus designated by the workers, 
particularly in England. (See Walkout; Down Tools.) 

Turnover. See Labor Turnover. 

Turnway Societies. These organizations of Thames watermen, 
the purpose of which is to regulate the "turns" or order in which the 
men plying at any particular "stairs" serve the passengers who pre- 
sent themselves, constitute the most primitive fonn or method of 

WORK SHARING, 

. [520] 



Tutorial Class Movement. The method of adult working- 
class EDUCATION in England and other parts of the British Empire, 
consisting of weekly lesson classes under the direction of salaried 
tutors for three-year courses in various non-vocational subjects, is 
so called. This work is mainly carried on under the direction of the 
Workers' Educational Association; it is financed by grants from 
national and local educational authorities and from the universities, 
by income from endowments, and by nominal fees from students. 

Twelve -Hour Day. A continuous working day of twelve 
hours was at one time the rule rather than the exception in industry. 
Through the pressure of working-class organization it has been gradu- 
ally eliminated, until it now survives mainly in those industries which 
have successfully resisted unionization — chiefly in the American 
steel industry, where not only the twelve-hour day but the seven- 
day week has long been common for large numbers of workers. 
The evil effects, both individual and social, of the twelve-hour day 
have been set forth in detail in the special report on the "long day" 
in the steel industry, made for the Cabot Fund and published in "The 
Survey" of March 5, 192 1. (See Long Turn.) 

Twenty -One Articles of Faith. See Lenin's Twenty-One 
Conditions. 

Twicer. In the British printing trades, a compositor who is 
also a pressman is so nicknamed. The term is also applied to a trade 
union official who tries to fill two jobs at once — for example, as the 
secretary of a national union and a labor member of Parliament. 

Two and a Half Internationale. See International Work- 
ing Union of Socialist Parties. 

Two Day -Shift System. That form of the shift system 
under which industrial work is carried on from dawn until dark by 
two sets or shifts of workers. Thus, under the British "Employment 
of Women, Young Persons, and Children Act, 1920," women and 
YOUNG PERSONS may be legally employed in factories or workshops 
at any time between six a.m. and ten p.m. on any week-day except 
Saturday, and on Saturday between six a.m. and two p.m., in shifts 
averaging not more than eight hours a day each — provided govern- 
ment permission has been granted upon joint application of the 
employer and a majority of the workpeople in each factory or work- 
shop. 

Two -Shift System. See Shift System. 

[521I 



Two -Machine System. In many industries there are certain 
machine-tools which require the attendance of a skilled machinist, 
but on which when once the piece of metal is properly set, the work 
proceeds automatically until the time comes for setting another 
piece. It is thus possible for one skilled workman to tend more 
than one such machine, and by so doing he can of course greatly 
increase his output. This form of labor-saving is strongly objected 
to by trade unions, on the ground that it reduces employment and 
so tends to lower the general scale of wages in the industry. (See 
Machine Question; Limitation of Output.) 



u 



U. G. T. See Union General de Trabajadores. 

U. I. L. See Unione Italiana del Lavoro. 

U. S. I. See Unione Syndic ale Italiana. 

Ulster Unionist Labor Association. See Irish Labor Party 
and Trades Union Congress. 

Ulster Workers' Union. See Irish Labor Party and Trades 
Union Congress. 

Under -Consumption Theory. As commonly understood, the 
theory that the workers lack the necessary purchasing power to 
satisfy their legitimate wants. Until such wants are satisfied, what 
is called general over-production is simply general under-con- 
sumption. Because of low wages, unemployment, etc., the workers 
must do without many commodities which they would otherwise 
consume; hence over-production and industrial shutdowns; hence 
unemployment, low wages, and loss of profits. Until a greater con- 
suming power is given to' the masses, it is held, there can be no break 
in the vicious circle. f'^The working people simply live from hand 
to mouth and consume what they get. The wealthy classes, with 
their large incomes, do not in fact consume all that comes to them. 
They therefore invest a large part of their incomes in productive 
enterprises. They add to the productive capacity more than the 
market will stand. In the end more goods are produced than there 
is a market for, and collapse necessarily comes. If the working people, 
who consume all they get, had a larger purchasing power, the con- 
suming power of society as a whole would be greater, and its pro- 
ducing power would be less ; so the phenomenon of congestion would 
not appear." 

Under -Cover Men. Industrial spies are commonly so desig- 
nated by their employers. They are private detectives (sometimes 
in the permanent employ of large industrial corporations or employ- 
ers' associations, sometimes hired from labor detective agencies) 

[523] 



who pose as worklngmen, join the latter's organizations, and attend 
their meetings for the purpose of securing first-hand information 
regarding the activities of groups or individuals in the labor move- 
ment. They are particularly prominent in any industry — as for 
example, steel-making — which opposes unionization. They have 
been largely employed by the government, notably during the past 
five years, in dealing with so-called "radical" activities. Their 
general character and methods are described in detail in the recent 
report on espionage in industry made for the Cabot Fund. 
** Given an employer suddenly face to face with the probability of 
labor trouble in his plant, ignorant of the character and point of 
view of his employees, with no access to their plans, very fearful of 
their organization — the result is almost inevitable panic, and the 
labor spy exists to exploit this panic. He capitalizes the employer's 
ignorance and prejudice, and enters the plant specifically to identify 
the leaders of the labor organization, to propagandize against them 
and BLACKLIST them, and to disrupt and corrupt their union. He is 
under cover, disguised as a worker, hired to betray the workers' 
cause." It is a common practice of the industrial spy to secure control 
of or to disorganize local unions by bribing their officers. "There 
seems excellent reason," says the Cabot Report, "to believe that 
this kind of control goes high in the ranks of union labor executives." 
Under-cover men are known among themselves and their employers 
under a variety of names, such as "operatives," "representatives," 
"special contract operatives," "special agents," "special duty men," 
"efficiency' men," "inside men," "cover-up men," etc. Of the 
printable names given them by those upon whom they spy, "stool 
pigeons," "stools," "gumshoes," and "finks" are perhaps the com- 
monest. (See Agent Provocateur.) 

Under -Employment. Irregular, uncertain, or less than full 
time employment — either of an individual worker, or of all workers 
in a specific trade or industry. In connection with casual labor, 
an under-employed worker is one who is hired often enough to pre- 
vent him from drifting away elsewhere, but not often enough to give 
him a decent living. All migratory labor represents a condition 
of under-employment. (See Reserve of Labor; On-and-Off 
System.) 

Underhands. All workers below the rank or grade of journey- 
man are so designated in some trades. 

Undertaker. See Entrepreneur. 

[524] 



Undermining. This term is sometimes used by trade unionists 
in designation of any action, individual or collective, on the part of 
other workers which tends to dispossess unionists of their jobs, to 
reduce wages, or otherwise to injure their interests. The term 
*' encroachment" is sometimes used in practically the same sense. 
(See Discipline.) 

Unemployables. In connection with the general problem of 
UNEMPLOYMENT, carcful distinction must be made between those 
unemployed persons who are able and willing to work, and those who 
for various reasons are classed as "unemployables." These latter, 
according to the staff report of the Federal Commission on Indus- 
trial Relations, "are really people who have dropped out of the 
ranks of industry, broken down by the unsteadiness of emplojmient 
or other causes. Some are mentally defective or physically incapable 
or both. Others are 'down-and-outs,' who have lost the habit of 
working. Still others live by their wits, by begging, or by crime. 
During the most prosperous times, when labor is in great demand, 
these same people do not work. They are 'unemployed' in the same 
sense that young children, the old, and the sick, and those who live 
on incomes from investments, are unemployed. No amount of work 
that might be provided by public or private enterprise would have 
any appreciable effect on these unemployables. They need hospital 
or corrective treatment. In prosperous times they are considered 
the subjects of such treatment, but in every period of industrial 
depression they stand out as the most conspicuous element in the 
'army of the unemployed.' The failure to distinguish these unem- 
ployables from those who are temporarily out of work on account of 
a slack season or the failure of a firm, and those casual workers who 
are employed for part of every week or month, leads to hopeless con- 
fusion." (See Subsidized Workshops; Labor Colonies; Casual 
Labor.) 

Unemployment. In the most obvious sense, absence from 
work, or the condition of being out of work. As usually considered, 
unemployment is an involuntary condition, and therefore must be 
carefully differentiated from the voluntary absence from work due 
to vacations, strikes, etc. A large percentage of unemployment is due 
to sickness, accidents, old age, intemperance, degeneracy, etc. In- 
voluntary unemployment not arising from physical or mental dis- 
ability on the worker's part is generally attributed to such immediate 
causes as (i) seasonal fluctuations and weather conditions, 
(2) trade depressions, (3) introduction of labor-saving machinery 

[525] 



and improved methods of manufacture and transportation, (4) im- 
perfect adjustments in the labor market, (5) lockouts or shut- 
downs on the part of employers. In addition, the continual shifting 
and displacement of individual workers involved in what is known 
as LABOR TURNOVER accounts for a large percentage of the total 
volume of unemplojrment at any given time. "The problem of un- 
employment," according to W. H. Beveridge, an English authority 
on the subject, **is the problem of the adjustment of the supply of 
labor and the demand for labor. The supply of labor in a country 
is, in the widest sense, the supply of population. It is at any moment, 
apart from the possibilities of emigration and immigration, a fairly 
fixed quantity. Moreover, it is fixed for each moment, not by any- 
thing then happening, but by the habits and actions of millions of 
disconnected households a generation back. The demand for labor, 
on the other hand, is an aggregate of thousands or tens of thousands 
of separate demands in the present. It fluctuates with the fortunes 
and the calculations of the host of rival employers. Discrepancy 
between two things so distinct in immediate origin is obviously pos- 
sible. The problem has merely to be stated in order to shatter the 
simple faith that at all times any man who really wants work can 
obtain it. There is nothing in the existing industrial order to secure 
this miraculously perfect adjustment." With specific reference to 
the United States, Professor Commons and some other authorities 
consider immigration to be the most obvious cause of unemployment. 
The staff of the Federal Commission on Industrial Relations 
reached the following conclusions: "A careful analysis of all avail- 
able statistics shows that in our great basic industries the workers 
are unemployed for an average of at least one-fifth of the year, and 
that at all times diu-ing any normal year there is an army of men, 
who can be numbered only by hundreds of thousands, who are un- 
able to find work or who have so far degenerated that they cannot 
or will not work. . . . Fundamentally this unemployment seems to 
rise from two great causes, although many others are contributory . 
First, the inequality of the distribution of income, which leaves the 
great masses of the population (the true ultimate consumers) unable 
to purchase the products of industry which they create, while a few 
have such a superfluity that it cannot be normally consimied but 
must be invested in new machinery for production or in the further 
monopolization of land and natural resources. . . . The second principal 
cause lies in the denial of access to land and natural resources even 
when they are unused and unproductive, except at a price and under 
conditions which are practically prohibitive." Unemployment is 

[526] 



regarded by many as the most important social problem of the age, 
because of its fundamental connection with nearly all other social 
problems. As far as immediate causes are concerned, any compre- 
hensive and workable plan for the prevention of unemplo3rment 
should emphasize the following lines of activity: (i) Establishment 
of public LABOR exchanges; (2) systematic distribution of public 
work; (3) regularization of industry; (4) unemployment in- 
surance. (See Employment Bureaus; United States Employ- 
ment Service; Under-Employment; Unemployables; Cyclical 
Fluctuations; Industrial Cycle; Land Question; Under- 
consumption Theory; Labor Surplus; Casual Labor; Migra- 
tory Labor; Labor Colonies; Percentage of Unemployed; 
Job Selling; Registry System; Distribution op Labor in Rus- 
sia; Continuity of Employment; Buffer Employment; Short 
Time; Dismissal Wage; together with the various cross references 
under these headings.) 

Unemployment Insurance. That form of social insurajjce 
which is intended to protect the worker against destitution during a 
period of involuntary idleness. Comprehensive national schemes of 
compulsory unemployment insurance, on a contributory basis, are 
now in effect in Great Britain and Italy. In other European countries 
public aid is given by municipal or national authorities to trade 
unions, mutual aid societies, etc., paying out-of-work bene- 
fits. In the United States unemplo37ment insurance is mainly a 
trade union function. According to Commons and Andrews's ** Prin- 
ciples of Labor Legislation," "the destitution due to unemployment, 
until recently considered a matter of purely individual concern, or 
at best as an occasion for charitable activity, is now beginning to 
be recognized as an evil which must be met by the coordinated 
forethought of society as a whole. The demoralization of individuals 
and communities by prolonged and widespread deprivation of income 
due to involuntary idleness, it is now rather generally agreed, should 
no longer be allowed to continue unchecked." Among the results of 
the first General Labor Conference of the League of Nations 
in 19 1 9 was the recommendation that each of the forty-one member* 
countries establish "an effective system of unemplo5niient insur- 
ance, either through a government system or through a system of 
government subventions to associations whose rules provide for 
the payment of benefits to their unemployed members." (See Ghent 
System; Fonds Nationale de Caisse; Travelling Benefits; 
Unemployment Insurance Act.) 

[527] 



Unemplojrment Insurance Act, 1920. A British Parliamen- 
tary enactment which came into operation November 8, 1920. The 
Act extends compulsory unemployment insurance to substantially 
all persons for whom health insurance contributions have now to 
be paid under the National Insurance Act, with the exception of 
OUTWORKERS and persons employed in agriculture and private 
DOMESTIC SERVICE. Benefits under the Act are payable for not more 
than fifteen weeks in any insurance year. Contributors under eighteen 
years of age are entitled to half the full rate. It is estimated that the 
total number insured against unemployment in Great Britain is 
now about 12,000,000 persons, including non-manual workers in 
receipt of remuneration not exceeding £250 a year. 

Unfair, Fair. See Fair, Unfair. 

Unfair List. A list compiled by trade unions and containing 

the names of employers who do not comply with union regulations 
or conform to union conditions. Such lists were formerly widely 
published, in connection with the boycott; but for legal reasons they 
are now, when used at all, privately circulated among union members. 
In a general way the unfair list corresponds, on the trade imion side, 
to the employers' blacklist. (See Fair List.) 

Ungarlandischer Gewerkschaftsrat (Trade Union Commis- 
sion). The central organ of Hungarian trade unionism; established 
1894. In 1914 the affiliated membership was 107,000. After the 
revolution of 19 18 the membership increased rapidly, the figin-es 
being 500,000 at the end of 19 18, and 800,000 during the Communist 
regime under Bela Kun. Since then the Hungarian labor move- 
ment has had to 'Struggle under continual and bloody persecution 
on the part of the reactionary government. According to the "Re- 
port of the British Joint Labor Delegation on the White Terror in 
Hungary," based on investigations made in May, 1920, seventy per 
cent of the trade union officials were either killed or imprisoned 
after the fall of Bela Kun's government, and labor headquarters 
everywhere were burnt and the funds seized. By the end of 19 19 the 
membership of the Trade Union Commission had fallen to 212,000. 
It has risen slightly since then — the figures reported in October, 
1920, being 215,000. 

Uniform Transfer Card. See Transfer Card, 

Union Busters. See Union Wreckers. 

ynion Button, See Working Buttqis^, 



Union Cards. See Working Card; Due Card; Travelling 
Card; Transfer Card; Withdrawal Card; Loan Card; Com- 
bination Card; Exempt Card; Union Shop Card; Card System. 

Union Closed Shop. See Closed Shop. 

Union Contract. See Trade Agreement. 

Union Departmentale. In France, a federation of syndi- 
cats (local trade unions) in each of the eighty-seven Departments 
(provinces) into which the country is divided. Thus the Union 
Departmentale de la Seine Inferieure is a combination of the various 
local trade unions in the province of the Lower Seine. The Union 
Departmentale has much the same character as a state federation 
OF labor in the United States, and it allows the same autonomy to 
its constituent bodies. Since 19 14 the Unions Departmentales have 
replaced the bourses du travail as part of the dual basis of the 

CONFfiDfiRATION GEN£RALE DU TrAVAIL. 

Union General de Trabajadores (General Union of Workers). 
The leading national organization of socialist workers in Spain. 
It was founded in 1883, by the Partido Socialista Obrero (Socialist 
Labor Party). Until 1902 the two organizations were largely iden- 
tical. The same officers continually served for both, and the 
periodical "El Socialista " is still the organ of both. The U. G. T. had 
in 1920 a membership of 300,000, distributed among 1,100 branches. 
It is strongest among the agricultural workers, and in the mining, 
building, and railway industries. Until recently its policy has been 
one of moderate opportunism; but the developments of the past 
year or two have driven it far toward the radical camp. (See Spanish 
Labor Movement.) 

Union Label. Originating in the United States in 1875, 
the use of this trade union device was for about five years confined 
to the cigar makers. Then, largely through the influence of the 
Knights of Labor, it began to be adopted in other trades. But 
until 1890 its use was decidedly limited, and its primary purpose 
was not as at present to secure the stipport of trade unionists and 
those sympathetic with organized labor, but to combat particular 
forms of competition — such as Chinese labor, prison labor, and 
tenement-house work. The wide use of the label after 1890 
was due to the change of policy in shifting its appeal from the public 
at large to members of trade unions. The label is now simply a 
public notice that the article to which it is attached is "union made,'* 

[529] 



i.e., that it is made in a shop which complies with all the working 
RULES of the local and national union in the particular trade involved, 
and employs only members of the union. Thus the label does not 
stand primarily for any particular set of conditions, but simply for 
those conditions which the unions of each trade have found it possible 
and desirable to establish. In many unions these conditions are by 
no means uniform in all the local unions, and in no union are they 
entirely uniform. Therefore, label shops and non-label shops are 
often found within the same national union, with different sets of 
requirements for the two classes. The use of the union label involves 
a considerable financial outlay. There is, first, the expense of making 
and distributing the labels; this is either borne entirely by the union, 
or in part by the union and in part by the employer. Much more 
important, however, is the expense involved in agitation for a wider 
use of the label, and for creating a demand for label goods. This 
expense is usually borne, directly or indirectly, by the local label- 
using unions. Laws for the registration and protection of trade 
union labels are in force in nearly all states in this country. In at 
least four states it is required by law that the union label shall appear 
upon all state printing. In 1890 the American Federation of 
Labor adopted a label for the use of federal labor unions and 
local trade unions affiliated directly with the Federation. Labels 
have also been adopted by several alliances of trades which combine 
to produce a single product — as printing, for example. The tech- 
nical methods of applying the union label vary with the character 
of the goods on which it is used. In most cases a printed paper label 
is pasted on each article or (as in the case of cigars) on the box or 
package. The Boot and Shoe Workers impress their label on the 
sole or insole of the shoe with a steel stamp, or print it on the lining 
of the shoe with a rubber stamp. In the garment-making trades 
a cloth label is sewed to each garment. The Hatters sew a paper 
label inside the hat under the band. A brass roller bearing the 
Bricklayers' label is attached to the brick-making machine, and this 
stamps the label into each brick as the soft clay passes under it. 
The Horseshoers use a steel stamp, with which they impress their 
label upon the hot shoe. The labels of the printers, furnished in the 
form of small electrotypes, leave their impression upon the printed 
sheet. In common trade union usage, the term "union label" 
generally designates not only the label proper but also union shop 
cards, working buttons, "or any device worn or exhibited to 
solicit patronage for union establishments or union members." (See 
Label Administration; Label Jurisdiction; Label Agreement; 

[S3°] 



Label Agitator; Label Unions; Label Trades; Joint Label; 
Universal Label; Union Stamp; Union Label Trades Depar*t- 
ment; Union Label Leagues; Allied Printing Trades Councils; 
Women's International Union Label League; Marque Syn- 

DICALE.) 

Union Label Advertiser. See Label Agitator. 

Union Label Agitator. See Label Agitator. 

Union Label Leagues. Local delegate bodies representative 
of trade unions affiliated with the Union Label Trades Depart- 
ment of the American Federation of Labor. Such Leagues are 
chartered by this Department, and are devoted to the same general 
purposes. Representation is on the basis of three delegates for each 
local affiliated union. The usual officers are elected, and meetings 
are held at stated intervals. Also called ** local label departments" 
and ** label leagues." 

Union Label Trades Department of the American Feder- 
ation of Labor. Organized 1909, and composed of **national 
and international unions regularly chartered by and affiliated to the 
A. F. of L. using labels, cards, or buttons on the products of their 
members or to designate membership therein." According to its 
constitution, "the objects of this Department shall be to promote a 
greater demand for products bearing the union label, and of labor 
performed by union workers; to investigate into, devise, recommend, 
and within the limit of its authority carry into effect methods for 
the advertisement of union label products ; to educate the members of 
Trade Unions, their families and the general public upon the economic, 
social, and moral uplift furthered by the Trade Union movement; 
to further the general welfare of all affiliated organizations, and to 
aid in the work of organization among all the toilers for the common 
good." (See Departments op the American Federation of 
Labor; Union Label Leagues.) 

Union Labor. The personnel and activities of trade union 
organizations, in a collective sense; or labor perfonned according 
to union requirements and under union conditions. 

Union OuVriere. In France, a combination of several syndicats 
ouwieres, or local working-class trade unions. 

Union Printers' Home. See Childs-Drexel Home for 
Union Printers. 

[531] 



Union Regionale. In France, a delegate body made up of 
representatives from the syndicats (trade unions) of a given district. 
It resembles, in the main, a trades council, and occupies a place 
midway between the local bourse du travail and the union 

DfiPARTMENTALE. 

Union Sacree. See French Labor Movement. 

Union Scab. One of the chief indictments brought by advo- 
cates of industrial unionism, particularly of the revolutionary 
type, against craft unionism is that it involves what they call 
"organized scabbery" and makes of its members at times what are 
termed "union scabs" or "contract scabs." This is due to the fact 
that craft unions are bound, as a rule, by separate trade agree- 
ments with their employer, and the members of a craft union must 
therefore usually remain at work at a time when the members of an- 
other craft in the same industry may be on strike, thus actually 
helping — however indirectly and involuntarily — to defeat the strike. 
On this same account, craft unions are sometimes dubbed "scab 
unions" by the revolutionaries. (See Scab.) 

Union Scale. See Scale. 

Union Shop. This term is variously defined by various 
authorities. But in the most obvious sense, it may be said to be an 
industrial establishment in which union conditions prevail — in which 
wages, hours, and other details have been made to conform to trade 
union standards, generally by joint agreement between employer and 
union. The closed shop is of necessity a union shop. But so also, 
under this definition, is the open shop conducted under a trade 
agreement establishing union hours, wages, and conditions, even 
though some of the workers are non-unionists. The preferential 
shop would also come under this head. (See Non-Union Shop; 
Mixed Shop.) 

Union Shop Card. A prmted announcement for display in 
retail stores, theatres, hotels, restaurants, etc., stating that the 
establishment authorized to display this card conforms to trade union 
conditions. The union shop card is similar in its purposes to the 
UNION LABEL. It is uscd in those trades where the labor of the 
workman results in the rendering of a service rather than in the pro- 
duction of a commodity — for example, the work of a barber or of a 
retail clerk — and where from the very nature of the case no label 
could be employed. 

[532] 



Union Smashers. See Union Wreckers. 

Union Stamp. The union label, when stamped directly 
upon an article, instead of being pasted, sewed, or otherwise attached, 
is sometimes so called. 

Union Wreckers. Those employers of labor who are con- 
sistently hostile to trade unions, or employers' associations of 
anti-union tendencies, are often so called. The term is also used 
among trade unionists in designation of an extreme form of scab. 
Thus, in the constitution of the Bricklayers' and Masons* Union, a 
union wrecker is defined substantially as one who goes into the 
jurisdiction of a union on strike and accepts employment and per- 
sists in retaining it, or who leaves a union to defeat a legitimate strike. 
The terms "union busters" and "union smashers" are also frequently 
used in the above-described meanings. 

Unione Italiana del Lavoro (Italian Union of Labor). Formed 
m 191 7, as a pro- war secessionist movement, under Alceste de Ambris, 
from the Confederazione Generale del Lavoro. It functions as 
an economic adjunct to the new pro-war socialist party, much as the 
C. G. L. functions for the old one. Its programme is a combination 
of syndicalism and nationalism. A membership of 125,000 is claimed 
for the organization. (See Italian Labor Movement.) 

Unione Syndicale Italiana. A national federation dating 
from 19 1 2, of the anarchist-syndicalist labor organizations of Italy. 
With a constituent membership of about 100,000 early in 19 19, the 
Unione has grown very considerably in niunbers during the past two 
years. "Though the Unione Syndicale can not be compared, numeri- 
cally, with the Confederazione Generale del Lavoro, it is a per- 
petual menace to the larger organization, being ready to gobble up 
its members the moment it ceases to respond to the increasingly 
revolutionary wishes of the workers. If the trades-unionists and 
Socialists make promises which they can not keep, the anarchists are 
on the spot to qffer a new and more daring way. Indeed, the Unione 
Syndicale stands somewhat in the position of the I. W. W. in Amer- 
ica." The "U. S. L," as it is popularly known, is organized on a 
basis similar to that of the Confederazione Generale del Lavoro, its 
constituent units being chambers of labor (camere del lavoro) and 
trade federations (federazione dei mestiere). It advocates the 
local, autonomous fighting unit (trade union or chamber of labor), 
organization along industrial rather than craft lines, non-participa- 

[533] 



tion In politics, direct action, and the general strike as a means of 
overthrowing capitalism and the capitalistic State. It has come 
into frequent conflict with the Italian government. (See Italian 
Labor Movement.) 

Unioni Cattoliche (Catholic Unions). See Confederazione 
Italiana DEI Lavoratori; White Unions. 

Unionism. In a general sense, the association for joint action 
and mutual assistance of persons having in common the same eco- 
nomic and social interests or the same viewpoint in regard to economic 
and social matters. Trade unionism, which represents the common 
interests of wage-earners, is but a single phase of the universal tend- 
ency toward unionism. Employers' associations, granges and 
farm bureaus, bar associations, chambers of commerce, and nimierous 
other phases, are equally representative of the same tendency. 

Unionization. The process or method of organizing non- 
union workers into trade unions. In regard to the ways and means 
by which unionization is brought about, according to Wejrforth's 
"The Organizability of Labor," there are three problems involved. 
"First, individuals must be brought together for combined action. 
Here it is a problem of getting the men into the union. Second, this 
original combination of forces must be given stability and perma- 
nence. Here it is a problem of holding the men in the union. Prob- 
lems of this sort are naturally present, although probably in different 
degrees, in forming any sort of association, trade union or otherwise. 
In the organizing of labor, however, still a third factor is found, 
namely, the attitude of the employer toward the organization of his 
employees. Since this attitude has usually been one of hostility 
and has led to efforts to prevent the formation of unions, the com- 
plete analysis of the mechanism of organizing requires also a con- 
sideration of the methods by which the opposition of the employer 
is overcome and of the difficulties and limitations in the way of the 
effective application of these methods." The initial work of union- 
ization is now mainly conducted by salaried trade union officials 
known as organizers. But their work is supplemented in large 
measure by a number of more indirect and occasional factors, 
of which the strike, the closed shop, the boycott, and the union 
LABEL are of chief importance. 

Unitary Control. As opposed to tripartite control, this 
means the domination of a single set of interests (those of either 
employers, wage-earners, or "the public") in the management and 
control of industry. 

[534] 



United Communist Party. Organized in 1920, as the result 
of a merger between one wing of the Communist Party of America 
and the Communist Labor Party of North America. The third 
Internationale recognizes this as the official communist organiza- 
tion of the United States, although the remainder of the Communist 
Party of America still maintains a separate existence. Both parties 
have been officially outlawed by the United States government, 
and aliens belonging to either organization are subject to deportation. 

United Labor Education Committee. A body representative 
of trade unions and persons interested in trade unionism, recently 
formed in New York City to advance the interests of non- vocational 
working-class education. The expenses are met by contributions 
from the affiliated organizations and individuals, the amount for 
each organization being based upon its membership and financial 
condition. The Committee is governed by an executive board made 
up of representatives of the affiliated organizations. Its educational 
programme includes lectures, classes for trade union officers, classes 
for the general membership, concerts, the theatre and opera, etc. 
Classes for the general membership are of the character of the British 
TUTORIAL CLASSES. They are formed at the request of groups of 
twenty-five or more persons, and are held in districts convenient to 
the workers making the request. Each course consists of ten weekly 
lectures. It is the ultimate aim of the Committee to become "the 
nucleus out of which the educational branch of the labor movement 
will grow." 

United States Board of Mediation and Conciliation. A 

permanent body created in 19 13, under the Newlands Act, for the 
settlement of such disputes between interstate railroads and their 
employees engaged in train service over questions of wages, hours 
of labor, or conditions of employment as may threaten serious inter- 
ruption of business. The Board now consists of three salaried com- 
missioners, appointed by the President and serving for seven years. 
Either party to a dispute may appeal to the Board for mediation 
or for its services in bringing about arbitration. Also the Board 
may at its discretion offer its services of its own initiative. The 
award must be accepted by both parties, though this provision is 
qualified so as to protect individual rights that might otherwise 
raise the question of constitutionality. Under the Transportation 
Act of 1920 it is provided that the powers and duties of the Board 
shall not extend to any dispute received for hearing and decision 
by the Railroad Labor Board. 

[535] 



United States Department of Labor. One of the ten main 
executive divisions of the Federal government. Its historical genesis 
is as follows: As the result of long agitation on the part of wage- 
earners, a Federal ** Bureau of Labor" was created in 1884, under the 
jurisdiction and control of the Department of the Interior. In 1888 
this was promoted to independent status as a "Department of Labor," 
but without being given executive rank with the other governmental 
departments. In 1903 an executive Department of Commerce and 
Labor was created, and the previous ''Department of Labor " became 
a "Bureau of Labor" under the jurisdiction of this new department. 
In 19 13 the labor activities of the Department of Commerce and 
Labor were separately organized in a full-fledged executive Depart- 
ment of Labor. In the organic act of March 4, 19 13, creating the 
Department it is stated that "The purpose of the Department of 
Labor shall be to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the 
wage-earners of the United States, to improve their working condi- 
tions, and to advance their opportunities for profitable employment.'* 
Under this organic act, the Bureau of Labor, its title altered to 
Bureau of Labor Statistics, came under the jurisdiction and super- 
vision of the Department of Labor. So did the Children's Bureau. 
The Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization was also placed 
under the Department of Labor, its title being altered to Bureau of 
Immigration. To those three bureaus a fourth was added by raising 
the Division of Naturalization in the former Bureau of Immigration 
and Naturalization to the rank of a bureau — the present Bureau of 
Naturalization. Thus the bureaus placed under the jurisdiction and 
supervision of the Department of Labor by its organic act, and which 
still remain so, are the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Immigration 
Bureau, the Children's Bureau, and the Naturalization Bureau. 
Besides these fotir bureaus, other activities were later separately 
organized in the Conciliation Division, the United States Em- 
ployment Service, the Negro Economics Division, the Women's 
Bureau (formerly known as the "Woman in Industry Service"), the 
Industrial Housing and Transportation Bureau, the United 
States Training Service, and the Working Conditions Service. 
Of these later sections, only the Women's Bureau has been placed upon 
a permanent statutory basis by Congress. Others, as well as some 
not mentioned above, were purely war-time services, which have 
now ceased to function; while the United States Employment Serv- 
ice and the Negro Economics Division maintain a precarious and 
uncertain existence on niggardly Congressional appropriations. At 
the head of the Department of Labor is the Secretary of Labor, 

[536] 



who is a member of the President's Cabinet. The subordinate offi- 
cers include the Assistant Secretary, a News-Release Officer, the 
Solicitor (who is also Acting Secretary under certain circumstances), 
the Chief Clerk, the Disbursing Clerk, the Appointment Clerk, and 
the heads of the various bureaus, divisions, services, etc., which come 
under the Department's jurisdiction. (See President's Mediation 
Commission; National War Labor Board; War Labor Policies 
Board; Labor Outings.) 

United States Employees' Compensation Act. A Con- 
gressional enactment which extends the advantages of workmen's 
compensation to certain employees of the government who are 
injured in the performance of their duties. The benefits provided 
are of three classes: (i) Medical and hospital treatment; (2) money 
compensation for loss of wages in excess of three days; and (3) 
money compensation to surviving dependents of employees dying 
as a result of injuries. The act is administered by an Employees' 
Compensation Commission, acting under control of the United 
States Public Health Service. 

United States Employment Service. A non-statutory divi- 
sion of the United States Department of Labor created by order 
of the Secretary of Labor on January 3, 1918, "to foster, promote, 
and develop the welfare of the wage-earners of the United States by 
so conserving and distributing their industrial activities as to im- 
prove their working conditions and advance their opportunities for 
profitable employment, in harmony with the general good, with the 
necessities of war, with the just interests of employers, and with the 
development in practice of the recognized principle of a common 
responsibility for production and a common interest in distribution." 
For fifteen months the Service performed an exceedingly difficult 
task with remarkable success, building up a widespread system of 
Federal employment bureaus in every part of the country, and co- 
ordinating the work of such state and municipal bureaus as were 
already in existence. Then Congress began its typical withdrawal of 
financial support. For a time the cooperation and backing of various 
welfare agencies, public authorities, and private citizens made it 
possible for the Service to "carry on" in its vitally important work. 
But in October, 19 19, owing to lack of funds, the employment offices 
up to that time operated by the Service were turned over to the 
several states and municipalities in which they had been maintained, 
or, where this was not possible, they were abandoned. The system 
pf cooperation with the states and municipalities which had been 

[537] 



established was, however, maintained and developed. (See National 
Clearing House for Labor; Zone Clearance System; Indus- 
trial Employment Survey; Labor Outings; Household Assis- 
tant System.) 

United States Housing Corporation. See Industrial Hous- 
ing AND Transportation Bureau. 

United States Training Service. This section of the United 
States Department of Labor was a temporary war-time agency 
organized in July, 19 18, in response to President Wilson's request 
that the Secretary of Labor should institute " a satisfactory method 
and administration for training of workers" and "an agency for 
dilution of skilled labor as and when needed." It was at first called 
the "Training and Dilution Service." The Service was abandoned 
at the end of June, 19 19. 

Universal Label. Instead of the present practice of having a 
separate union label design for each label trade or industry, it has 
often been proposed that there should be a single uniform or "uni- 
versal" label, to be used by all label unions affiliated with the 
American Federation of Labor. This proposal, however, has 
never made any very appreciable headway. The label used by the 
Industrial Workers of the World is a "universal label," the de- 
sign, color, etc., being identical for all industries. 

Universite du Peuple (Paris). See Working-Class Educa- 
tion. 

Unlawful Persuasion. See Picketing. 

Unpractical Man. See Practical Man. 

Unrest. See Industrial Unrest. 

Unskilled Worker. One engaged in any form of industrial 
labor for which little if any preliminary training is required. Com- 
posed as it is mainly of skilled craft unions, American trade unionism 
has given but slight recognition to the unskilled worker — whose con- 
dition most needs amelioration. But due in part to the propaganda 
of the Industrial Workers of the World and in part to othet 
factors, this situation is now changing. To quote Dr. Glocker: 
"As DIVISION OF LABOR bccomcs morc minute, as the old method of 
apprenticeship fails, and as the groups of skilled and semi-skilled 
are being recruited in an increasing nimiber of instances by the 
promotion of the common laborers required for the many odd jobs 

[538] 



existing in every industrial establishment, the other trades are mani- 
festing a growing tendency to admit such potentially dangerous com- 
petitors to their unions." (See Skilled Worker; Semi-Skilled 
Worker; Laborer; Common Labor; Green Hands; General 
Workers; Immigration.) 

Unternehmer. See Entrepreneur. 

Uplift Unionism or Friendly Unionism. Terms used by 
Professor Hoxie in designation of the functional type of labor organ- 
ization that seeks to elevate the moral, intellectual, and social life 
of the worker as well as improve his conditions of labor. It employs 
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING, but resorts by preference to political 
action, and emphasizes mutual insurance, profit sharing, and 
COOPERATION. It is as a rule conservative and law-abiding, and shares 
many other of the characteristics of business unionism. (See Old 
Unionism.) 

Utility Man. In some industries, this is the common desig- 
nation for "an experienced, all-round, handy employee who is 
shifted from one kind of work to another as needed, and fills in tem- 
porarily for employees who are absent from duty." 

Utopian Socialism. In its dogmatic form, the doctrine that 
society should be reconstructed to conform to an ideal pattern de- 
vised by some individual thinker. The forms of socialism known as 
Saint-Simonism and Fourierism are of this kind. As contrasted 
with scientific socialism, which holds that social institutions are 
moulded by material forces over which man has no conscious control, 
Utopian socialism holds that the future of society can be shaped by 
deliberate choice and action on the part of its members. 



V 



Vacant Book. See Registry System. 

Vacationists. A term applied by strikers to themselves 
when they wish to avoid the technical admission that they are 
exerting economic pressure by concerted action. It first appeared 
during the New York printers' strike of 19 19, which was not author- 
ized by the international union officials; and was used again by the 
railroad men in 1920, who were wary of prosecution under the Federal 
law. Dissatisfied workers who, for one reason or another, are for- 
bidden to strike now merely "take vacations." (See Outlaws; 
Secessionists; Strike in Detail.) 

Vagabond's Wage. A term sometimes used in designation of 
a simi sufficient to secure the minimum necessities of life, which 
under some future form of society would be paid to all persons equally, 
regardless of whether they work or not. 

Value of Labor. See Labor Cost; Wages. 

Vertical Combination. See Large-Scale Production. 

Vested Interests Doctrine. Mr. and Mrs. Webb use this 
term in designation of the common trade union assumption "that 
the wages and other conditions of smployment hitherto enjoyed by 
any section of workmen ought under no circumstances to be inter- 
fered with for the worse. It was this doctrine . . . which inspired the 
long struggle . . . against the introduction of machinery, or any in- 
novation in processes. It is this doctrine which today gives the 
bitterness to demarcation disputes, and lies at the back of all the 
Regulations dealing with the 'right to a trade.' It does more than 
anything else to keep alive the idea of ' patrimony ' and the practice 
of a lengthened period of apprenticeship, whilst it induces the 
workmen of particular trades to cling fondly to the expedient of 
limiting the numbers entering those trades, even after experience 
has proved such a limitation to be impracticable. But the Doctrine 
of Vested Interests extends much further than these particular 

[540] 



Regulations. There is scarcely an industry in which it will not be 
found, on one occasion or another, inspiring the defence of the cus- 
tomary rates of wages or any threatened privilege. In some cases, 
indeed, we find the whole argument for Trade Unionism based on 
this one conception." 

Vestibule Schools. Refers to a plan of training new workers, 
particularly women, in large industrial plants. Under this plan 
machinery is installed in a reserved section of the factory proper or 
in a separate building which is a part of the plant. In these instruc- 
tion rooms working conditions are reproduced as nearly as possible, 
so that the workers may not only absorb a littl ^ of the shop atmosphere 
and conquer the timidity induced by new work in unusual surround- 
ings but also acquire some degree of skill before beginning work in 
the shop. Vestibule training was widely practiced during the recent 
war, particularly in connection with the process known as dilution 

OF LABOR. 

Vice Principal Doctrine. See Superior Servant Doctrine. 

Victim Pay or Victimization Pay. A form of out-of-work 
benefit accorded to trade union members who, because of special 
zeal or activity in union matters, have been discharged by their em- 
ployers. It is usually more liberal than the ordinary out-of-work 
benefit, and in a few unions is equal to the full wages of the ''vic- 
timized" member. (See Victimization.) 

Victimization. As used in labor circles, this term usually 
refers to the dismissal, ordinarily on some petty or invented charge, 
of a workman who has offended his foreman or employer by undue 
zeal as a trade union official, strike leader, shop steward, or in some 
other similar capacity. In a less extreme form, victimization may 
consist in unfair docking or in assigning an undesirable job or place 
of work to an "offending" worker, or in various other practices 
known to foremen, superintendents, and employers. A trade unionist 
who has suffered from victimization is sometimes referred to by his 
fellow-unionists as a "sacrificed member." (See Victim Pay; One- 
Man Strike; Allocation of Work.) 

Victorian Wages Board System. As adopted by the Australian 
state of Victoria in 1896, this is a method of compulsory industrial 
regulation by means of official wages boards for particular industries. 
The original act applied only to certain "sweated" trades, but since 
1903 it has been extended to cover practically all the ordinary indus- 

[5411 



tries of the state. A wages board consists of an equal number of 
employers and workers, chosen by the government, with an impar- 
tial CHAIRMAN. Its function is to fix minimimi standards of wages, 
hours, and working conditions in a single industry. The finding of 
the board becomes the common rule for that industry, and any em- 
ployer who goes below the standard fLxed is subject to cash penalties. 
The functions of a wages board indirectly give it a considerable source 
of control over industrial disputes; but the right to strike is not 
seriously interfered with. The British Trade Boards Act of 1909 
copies the main outlines of the Victorian wages board system. (See 
Wage Boards.) 

Vienna Internationale. See International Working Union 
OF Socialist Parties. 

Vigilance Committee. See Watch Committee. 

Villeinage. See Serfdom. 

Violence in the Labor Movement. Whether in the ordinary 
sense of "highly excited feeling or action," in the legal sense of "un- 
lawful exercise of physical force," or in the extreme sense of "physical 
outrage or injury," violence exists in the labor movement to about 
the same relative extent, probably, as in any other definite section 
or group of society. The staff report of the Federal Commission 
ON Industrial Relations contains the following conclusions on the 
subject: "Violence is seldom, if ever, spontaneous, but arises from a 
conviction that fundamental rights are denied and that peaceful 
methods of adjustment can not be used. The sole exception seems to 
lie in the situation where, intoxicated with power, the stronger party 
to the dispute relies upon force to suppress the weaker. The arbitrary 
suppression of violence by force produces only resentment, which 
will rekindle into greater violence when opportunity offers. Violence 
can be prevented only by removing the causes of violence ; industrial 
peace can rest only upon industrial justice. The origin of violence 
in connection with industrial disputes can usually be traced to the 
conditions prevailing in the particular industry in times of peace or 
to arbitrary action on the part of governmental officials which in- 
fringes on what are conceived to be fundamental rights. Violence and 
disorder during actual outbreaks usually result from oppressive con- 
ditions that have obtained in a particular shop or factory or in a par-, 
ticular industry. Throughout history where a people or a group have 
been arbitrarily denied rights which they conceived to be theirs, 
reaction has been inevitable. Violence is a natural form of protest 

[ 542 ] 



against injustice. Violence in industrial disputes is not immediately 
the product of industrial conditions, but of the attitude of the parties 
to the dispute after grievances or demands have been presented. 
The principal sources of an attitude leading to violence are: (i) 
Arrogance on the part of the stronger party. This may result im- 
mediately in violence through the use of force for the suppression of 
the weaker party. The force used may be physical or industrial. 
Physical force may be and is used by both employers and employees, 
through INTIMIDATION, assaults, or attacks on property. Such phys- 
ical aggression is seldom used by employees, as they are strategically 
the weaker party and the results are negative ; only under exceptional 
circumstances can an employer be coerced by the use of force or in- 
timidation. The exceptions seem to lie in the use of secret means, 
such as dynamite, with the object of weakening the employer's 
resistance. The use of force by workers is normally directed not 
against the person or property of the employer, but against strike- 
breakers and guards. Many instances of the use of physical force 
by the agents of employers have, however, come before the Com- 
mission, indicating a relatively wide use, particularly in isolated com- 
munities. Such acts of violence usually take the form of assaults 
upon the leaders of the workers or upon organizers. ... (2) Equally 
productive of an attitude leading to violence is the denial of the use 
of peaceful methods of adjusting grievances, or the creation of a 
situation in which their use becomes impossible. On the part of the 
employer the arbitrary acts which may be classed under this general 
head are: Denial of the right to organize; refusal to consider the 
complaints of workers; refusal to meet the authorized representa- 
tives of the workers. . . . On the part of the workers, the possibility 
of peaceful settlement may be destroyed by refusal to discuss claims, 
by internal dissensions which render collective and definite action 
looking to a settlement impossible, and by the issuance of ultimata 
which allow no time for consideration and negotiation. In any one 
of these situations the employer has only the choice between tame 
submission or absolute resistance to the demands of the workers. 
(3) The immediate cause of violence in connection with industrial 
disputes is almost without exception the attempt to introduce 
strikebreakers to take the place of the workers who have struck or 
who are locked out. The entiie problem of policing industrial dis- 
putes grows out of the problem of the strikebreaker and the attitude 
of the State toward him. ... (4) The greatest disorders and most 
acute outbreaks of violence in connection with industrial disputes 
arise from the violation of what are considered to be fundamental 

[ 543 1 



rights, and from the perversion or subversion of governmental 
institutions." (See Molly Maguires; McNamara Case; Bisbee 
Deportations; Policing of Industry; Armed Guards; Agent 
Provocateur; State Constabulary; Predatory Unionism.) 

Visiting Committee. See Malingering. 

Vocational Counsellor. See Vocational Guidance. 

Vocational Education. That form of instruction which aims 
toward the development of efficiency in a particular vocation or 
occupation, rather than towards general cultural development. 
Including, as it does, training for particular professions as well as 
particular trades, vocational education denotes the broad general 
field of which trade education, technical education, and professional 
education are merely special phases. Vocational education usually 
includes some general instruction, especially in subjects more closely 
related to the vocation to be followed. Under the Federal Vocational 
Education Act of February, 19 17, the various states of the American 
Union are encouraged to make provision for the training of normal 
persons about to enter, or after entering, an employment, by Federal 
grants equal in amount (within certain limits) to svuns appropriated 
by state and local authorities for this purpose. (See Vocational 
Rehabilitation; Trade Schools; Part-Time Schools; Voca- 
tional Guidance; Prevocational Education.) 

Vocational Guidance. This term is applied to various forms 
of effort directed in general toward helping young people in the 
problem of preparing for a particular vocation and in finding a suit- 
able and desirable entrance into that vocation. Such efforts are 
carried on by many different sorts of agencies — public school author- 
ities, teachers* associations, chambers of commerce, etc. The officer 
in charge of such work is often called a "vocational counsellor." 

Vocational Rehabilitation. The retraining, for remunera- 
tive occupations, of persons who have been so injured as to render 
them incapable of following their previous occupations. The move- 
ment for vocational rehabilitation received great impetus from con- 
ditions produced by the recent war. In June, 19 18, Congress passed 
a Vocational Rehabilitation Act, under which the various states of 
the Union are encouraged to make provision for the industrial reha- 
bilitation of disabled ex-service men by the offer of Federal grants, 
equal in amount to whatever stuns may be appropriated by the state 
or local authorities for this purpose, within certain limits. Under 

[544] 



the Industrial Rehabilitation Act of June, 1920, the provisions of 
the previous Act were extended to apply to all disabled workers, 
whatever the cause of their disablement. The administration of 
these two measures, together with that of the Vocational Education 
Act of February, 19 17, is placed in charge of the Federal Board for 
Vocational Education, consisting of the Secretaries of Labor, Agri- 
culture, and Commerce, the U. S. Commissioner of Education, and 
three citizens appointed by the President to represent respectively 
agricultural, manufacturing and commercial, and labor interests. 
Some systems of workmen's compensation carry provisions for 
Vocational rehabilitation, including surgical and medical aid, general 
reeducation, and assistance in finding reemplo3rment. 

Voluntary Arbitration. See Arbitration. 

Voluntary Award. See Award. 

Voluntary Benefit Associations. See Establishment Fund. 

Voluntary Insurance. See Mutual Insurance. 

Voluntary Relief Departments. See Establishment Fund. 

Voluntary Socialism. See State Socialism. 

Vorbereitender Reichswirtschaftsrat (Provisional National 
Economic Council). See Reichswirtschaftsrat. 

Voting by Card. The method followed by the British Labor 
Party at its annual and special conferences, by which votes on im- 
portant questions are taken according to cards issued by the Party 
on the following basis: Trade unions and other affiliated societies 
receive one voting card for each 1,000 members or fraction thereof 
in a single society; affiliated trades councils receive one voting 
card each; local labor parties receive one voting card for each 
Parliamentary constituency within a party's area; central labor 
parties in ** divided boroughs" receive one voting card each. Every 
card entitles the body holding it to one vote on any question before 
the Party conference. (See Block Vote.) 



w 



W. E. A. See Workers' Educational Association. 

W. I. U. See Workers' Industrial Union. 

Wage Bill. See Price List. 

Wage Boards. Joint bodies appointed to establish and regu- 
late minimum wage and other wage rates, either for all the industries 
of a particular geographical area or for a single industry. They are 
usually composed of an equal number of employers' and employees' 
representatives, together with an impartial chairman or one or more 
"neutral" representatives. In some cases wage boards have juris- 
diction also over hours of labor, general working conditions, etc. In 
Great Britain particularly, wage boards (or ''wages boards," as they 
are called in that country) are an important part of the machinery 
of industrial conciliation and arbitration. Here the organization 
of such boards, which are mainly of a local character, is very generally 
established by permanent written agreement or constitution, while 
in the United States the methods of organization and procedure are 
usually left either to unwritten custom or are determined by the an- 
nual agreements regarding conditions of labor themselves. "Wages 
boards are to be distinguished both from mere occasional meetings 
or conferences between representatives or committees of employers 
and employed in a trade for the purpose of discussing wage rates or 
other points at issue, and from the joint committees which are fre- 
quently coflistituted in trades for the purpose of hearing and determin- 
ing in a judicial manner questions arising between individual em- 
ployers and those whom they employ. The object of a true wages 
board is to prevent conflicts by means of periodical and organized 
meetings of representatives of employers and employed for the pur- 
pose of discussing and revising general wage rates in accordance 
with the changing circimistances of the time. . . Although the primary 
purpose of a wages board is the regulation of wages, it may also be 
made use of for the discussion of other general trade questions, and 
be, as it were, a parliament of the trade." The term "wage board," 

[ 546 1 



or "wage committee," is sometimes used in designation of a local 
body of trade union or employees' representatives, or of both workers' 
and employers' representatives, appointed to formulate or make 
adjustments in the wage scale for a particular industry or plant. 
(See Trade Boards; Victorian Wages Board System; Minimum 
Wage Laws; Railroad Labor Board.) 

Wage Committee. See Wage Boards. 

Wage Deductions. In general, these fall into four classes, 
as follows: (i) Deductions in payment of fines; (2) deductions as 
payment for damages; (3) deductions for use of tools and material; 
(4) deductions for medical and other benefits. Laws governing one 
or several of the various forms of wage deductions exist in the United 
States and some other countries. (See Hospital-Fee System; 
Company Doctor; Check-Off System; Dockage System.) 

Wage Differential. A difference in wage levels maintained 
for different groups of workmen in the same general occupation. Dur- 
ing the recent war, for instance, there existed a differential between 
the wages of machinists in shipyards and machinists in arsenals and 
navy yards. 

Wage Earners. In arriving at the proper meaning of this 
term, the American economist Francis A. Walker excludes "first, 
the employing class ; second, all who, having possession of the agencies 
and instruments of production, whether agricultural or mechanical, 
are not dependent on others for the opportunity to produce; third, 
those who, though not owning land, lease it, whether under the pro- 
tection of law or subject to all the hardships of competition. These 
successive exclusions leave us the employed class, whether in agri- 
culture or manufactures. From this we further exclude all who 
produce on shares, and all who are paid or subsist out of the revenues 
of their employers. We have left the wages class proper, including 
all persons who are employed in production with a view to the profit 
of their employers, and are paid at stipulated rates." 

Wage Exemption. Under the laws of all states in the United 
States, wages are exempt in various amounts from attachment, exe- 
cution, and garnishment for the pSLjinQnt of debts. This exemption 
applies also to the house and tools of a wage-earner. In order to 
make these laws effective for their purpose, the assignment of un- 
earned wages on the part of a laborer is either forbidden or restricted 
in various ways. 

[547] 



Wage Fund Theory. As an attempt of economists to solve 
the problem of general wages, or what share of the total produce of 
industry goes to "labor," this theory may be summarized in three 
propositions, as follows: (i) In any country at any time there is a 
determinate amount of capital unconditionally destined for the 
payment of labor. This is the wage fund. (2) There is also a deter- 
minate number of laborers who must work independently of the 
rate of wages — that is, whether the rate is high or low. (3) The wage 
fund is distributed among the laborers solely by means of competi- 
tion, employers competing with one another for labor, and laborers 
with one another for work; and thus the average rate of wages de- 
pends on the proportion between the wage fund and population. 
"There is supposed to be," wrote J. S, Mill, "at any given instant a 
sum of wealth which is unconditionally devoted to the payment of 
wages of labor. This sum is not regarded as unalterable, for it is 
augmented by saving and increases with the progress of society; but 
it is reasoned upon as at any given moment a predetermined amount. 
More than that amount it is assimied that the wage-receiving class 
cannot possibly divide among them; that amount and no less they 
cannot but obtain. So that the sum to be divided being fixed, the 
wages of each depend solely on the divisor, the nimiber of partici- 
pants." If this theory, as thus summarized, be accepted, it follows 
that wages can only rise either through an increase of capital or 
through a decrease of population. Hence, also, according to this 
theory, all combinations of labor are useless, since if one group of 
workers obtains more than the average rate of wages another group 
will have to take less. Although now rather completely abandoned 
by economic authorities, the wage fund theory still lingers in the 
public mind, and lies at the root of much of the uninformed middle- 
class hostility to trade unions. (See Iron Law of Wages ; Malthu- 
sianism; Productivity Theory of Wages; Lump of Labor 
Theory.) 

Wage Laws. Legislation, either state or national, governing 
such matters as the time, place, basis, and mediimi of wage payments, 
wage deductions, legal procedure for the collection of unpaid wages, 
wage exemption, assignment of wages, mechanics' lien, wage 
preference, etc. (See Time of Wage Payment; Place of Wage 
Payment; Minimum Wage Laws; Truck System; Fair Wages 
Clause; Remuneration of Labor in Russia.) 

Wage Payment Methods. Broadly speaking, in G. D. H. 
Cole's summary, "there are two possible bases of payment within 

[548] 



the WAGE SYSTEM — payment for time worked and pajmient for out- 
put. There are indeed all kinds of modifications and minglings of 
these two principles; but they are none the less fundamentally dis- 
tinct. A worker may be paid in strict accordance with the time 
spent on the employer's work at so much per hour, per day, per week, 
per month, or per year; or he or she may be paid in accordance with 
the work done at so much per piece, or per unit of effort. Again, the 
method of payment may be either individual or collective: the em- 
ployer may deal separately with, and pay wages by time or output 
to, every worker individually, or a lump sum may be paid over to a 
single worker on behalf of a group, or to the group itself. These 
two systems are, I have said, in principle distinct, however they may 
mingle in practice. But, to a very great extent, they do possess a 
common basis. A time-work system is never wholly without relation 
to output; for the employer inevitably expects a certain amount of 
work from the worker whom he employs, and if this amount is not 
forthcoming, he finds his remedy in discharging the worker. Pay- 
ment by output, again, is never wholly without relation to a tim.e 
standard; for piece-prices are invariably determined to a great extent 
by the income which constitutes the normal standard of living for 
the workmen concerned. This, however, is only to say that both time- 
workers and piece-workers are subject to the wage system." (See 
Time Work; Piece Work; Task Work; Bonus System; Pre- 
mium Bonus System; Truck System; Sliding Scale; Straight 
Pay; Payment by Results; Collective Contract; together 
with the various cross references under these headings.) 

Wage Preference or Wage Priority. The principle, specifically 
recognized in various state and national laws, that in cases of assign- 
ments, administrations, and receiverships due to death or bankruptcy, 
the wages of employees, up to a specified simi and for work done 
within a specified period, shall have either absolute preference or 
priority over all other claims or (as in some states) over all claims 
other than those for fees, costs, and taxes. 

Wage Scale. See Scale. 

Wage Slavery. A term sometimes applied to the present 
industrial organization of society, under which the great mass of the 
people depend for their subsistence upon wages allotted them by a 
comparatively small group, the holders of capital, who own and con- 
trol the means of production. (See Capitalism; Exploitation; 
Profits System; Wage System.) 
36 [ 549 ] 



Wage System. Defined by G. D. H. Cole as "the system 
under which the worker sells his labor to an employer in return for 
a wage, and by this sale is supposed to forego all right over the 
manner in which his labor is used within the terms of the wage- 
contract, all right to exercise control over the management of the 
industry or service in which he is engaged, and all claim to the produce 
of his labor or to the common product of the labor of himself and his 
f ellow- workers. " A briefer definition is that by Professor Fetter: 
"The organization of industry wherein some men, owning and direct- 
ing capital, buy at their competitive value the services of men with- 
out capital." As serfdom gradually succeeded slavery, so the wage 
system gradually succeeded serfdom. Underlying practically every 
phase of the labor problem is this system "which casts upon the 
laborer the responsibility for his own maintenance, which makes 
him merchant as well as producer, and compels him to take his chances 
and stake his welfare upon successful bargaining in the labor mar- 
ket." (See Capitalism; National Economy; Wage Slavery.) 

Wages. In an economic sense, the remuneration of labor of 
any kind, whether manual or mental, and of any degree of skill. 
As commonly understood, however, the term is restricted in meaning 
to "the reward of those who are employed in production, with a view 
to the profit of their employers, and are paid at stipulated rates." 
The economic problem of wages is generally discussed under two 
main heads: (i) General wages, or the share of the total product 
of industry that goes to labor; and (2) relative wages, or the differences 
of wages in different occupations. Owing to variations in the pur- 
chasing power of m.oney at different times and in different places, 
a very definite distinction is made betv/een nominal or ''money'' 
wages, the amount of money a worker receives for his labor, and 
real or ''commodity'' wages, the amount of commodities and services 
that the money received will actually purchase at a given time. 
When a rise in nominal wages is accompanied by a steeper rise in the 
cost of living, real wages actually fall, or vice versa. There should 
also be kept in mind the distinction between wages, the concern of 
the worker, and the value of labor or labor cost, the concern of the 
employer; these two things being by no means synonymous. High 
wages do not necessarily mean a high labor cost or an increased cost 
of production, if the amount or quality of the services rendered in 
return is proportionately increased or improved. High wages may 
thus mean "cheap labor," and low wages "dear labor." It is impos- 
sible, in brief space, to go into a discussion of the various factors 

[550] 



and theories which have to do with the determination of wages. 
In general, however, it may be said that the commonest tendency 
in the industrial field as a whole is toward some approximate agree- 
ment between daily wage-levels and the current cost of living — in 
other words, toward an equalization of real wages and nominal 
wages. Ordinarily there is a rough conformity between the two, 
depending largely upon the varying conditions of prosperity and 
depression, but the fluctuations of prices are more extreme and sud- 
den than those of wages. Wages follow at a considerable interval 
the rise and fall of prices. When prices rise as a result of prosperity, 
a considerable proportion of the succeeding rise in wages is counter- 
acted by the increased cost of living; and when prices fall as a result 
of depression, the laborer does not enjoy all the fruits of low prices 
on account of the resulting lack of employment. It must be noted 
also that changes in the daily rates of wages are by no means a cri- 
terion of changes in the relative condition of the workers. More 
important than daily rates are the annual earnings. Annual earn- 
ings depend both on the daily rate and on the amount of emplo5mient 
throughout the year. Again, not even do annual earnings represent 
accurately the changing conditions of wage-earners. Perhaps the 
most significant feature of modem industry is the increasing intensity 
of exertion, owing to the introduction of m^^hinery and minute 
DIVISION OF LABOR. Where formerly the workingman could change 
from one operation to another, he now is commonly limited to a 
very small operation in a large series. He acquires intense speed, 
and the force of competition compels employers to select only those 
who excel in physical vigor. The result is that the trade life of the 
workingman has been reduced in many industries. Plainly, if the 
increased exertion of the wage-earner shortens his period of earnings, 
there ought to be a corresponding increase in the daily rates of wages 
in order that he may retain throughout his life his original standard 
OF LIVING. Finally it should be noted that money wages in cities 
must be considerably higher than money wages in the country, 
in order that the same standard of living may be maintained; and 
wages in growing cities must rise much more rapidly than country 
or village wages, in order that the condition of the workingmen may 
run a parallel course of improvement. Taking into account these 
observations, it must be concluded that the daily rate of wages is 
not a safe measure of the changing conditions of 'abor, and that in 
a discussion of the progress of the working population account 
must be taken of the amount of annual employment, depending on 
general conditions of prosperity and depression, the life-earnings of 

[ssi] 



the worker, depending upon the increasing intensity of exertion and 
OVERWORK, and the increased necessary expenses of city life. (For 
explanations of the three principal economic theories of wages, 
see Iron Law of Wages, Wage Fund Theory, and Productivity 
Theory. For other main references under this head, see Wage 
System; Living Wage; Minimum Wage; Family Wage; Fair 
Wage; Steward's Theory of Wages; Exchange Theory of 
Wages; Surplus Value Theory; Wage Payment Methods.) 

Wages Boards. See Wage Boards. 

Waiting List. See Registry System. 

Waiting Period. Under nearly all systems of workmen's 
compensation and other forms of social insurance, the payment 
of BENEFITS or Compensation does not begin until a period of from 
one to several days after an accident occurs, an illness develops, etc. 
This intervening time is commonly known as the ** waiting period," 
and its chief object is to prevent or discourage malingering. 

Walker. The foreman of a labor camp is commonly nicknamed 
*'the walker." 

Walking Delegate. A nearly obsolete term, originally applied 
to the representative of a trade union who was directed to visit the 
employers' establishments and see that union conditions prevailed. 
The modem equivalent of the walking delegate is the business 
AGENT or steward, who has many highly important duties. (See 
Organizer.) 

Walking Time. In the British building trades this is an 
extra payment, usually stipulated in the working rules, made to 
men who have to walk more than a certain distance to and from their 
work. 

Walkout. A STRIKE is commonly so called in the United 
States. (See Turnout.) 

War Chest. See Strike Fund. 

War Labor Board. See National War Labor Board. 

War Labor Policies Board. A Federal war-time agency organ- 
ized in June, 191 8, to reconcile interdepartmental differences as to 
administration with reference to labor matters and to recommend to 
the Secretary of Labor unified labor policies for harmonizing the 

[553] 



industrial activities of separate branches of the government. Al- 
though it was created by the Secretary of Labor and operated under 
his direction, it included representatives of the War Department, the 
Navy Department, the Department of Agriculture, the United 
States Shipping Board, the Emergency Fleet Corporation, the Fuel 
Administration, the Food Administration, the Railroad Administra- 
tion, and the War Industries Board, as well as the Department of 
Labor. This body should not be confused with the National War 
Labor Board. 

Watch Committee or Vigilance Committee. In England, a 
committee made up of all the shop stewards in a single large indus- 
trial works is sometimes so called. (See Convener.) 

Watching or Besetting. See Trade Disputes Act. 

Waterside Workers. As used in England, this term designates 
a class of workers which includes, broadly speaking, the men employed 
in loading, bunkering, and discharging all kinds of craft, men em- 
ployed in conveying goods from ship to warehouse and from ware- 
house to ship, and any other labor immediately attendant upon this 
sort of work. (See Transport Workers; Dockers; Strappers.) 

Week Work. The system of wage payment under which the 
worker receives a specified sum for a working week consisting of a 
specified mmiber of hours. The term "week work" is often used as 
a general synonym for time work. (See Forty Hour Week ; Forty- 
Four Hour Week; Forty-Eight Hour Week; English Week; 
Stab Work; Normal Day.) 

Weekly Rest. See One Day's Rest in Seven. 

Weighted Index Numbers. In computing the relative fluc- 
tuations of commodity prices by means of index numbers, it is neces- 
sary to take into account the fact that some standard commodities 
are regularly consumed in much greater quantities than others. 
Hence the practice has been largely adopted of "weighting" the 
figures which go to make up the index number according to some 
scale of relative importance. If there were in a room a number of 
men just five feet high and a number just six feet high, one would not 
find out the average height by adding five and six and dividing by 
two; one would find how many there were of each height, multiply 
the heights by the respective number of men, and divide by the 
total number. Similarly, it is easy to multiply the figure representing 
price by a number or "weight" representing its relative importance, 

[553] 



and divide the total of all the figures thus multiplied by the sum of 
the weights. The most suitable weights in such a case as prices 
would seem to be the proportions in which the several articles enter 
into constmiption. 

Weir Plan. An adaptation of the premium bonus system, 
devised by a Glasgow fimi of manufacturers, which is similar in nearly 
all essentials with the Halsey plan. The worker receives his hourly 
rate of wages on one-half of the time saved under the standard 
allowance. 

Welfare Committee. In England, a body representing as a 
rule all the workers in a single industrial establishment, which deals 
with matters that affect the comfort and physical well-being of the 
workman while engaged at his occupation — ventilation, sanitation, 
safety, etc. Such committees sometimes exercise control, also, over 
the social and recreational concerns of the worker; although these 
are often handled by a separate body, known as a social union. 

Welfare Manager. See Welfare Work. 

Welfare Secretary. See Welfare Work. 

Welfare Supervision. The common British equivalent for 
what is known in this country as welfare work. In the larger 
industrial plants, welfare supervision is the function of a special 
official called a "welfare supervisor," "welfare worker" or "social 
secretary," who (according to a British government bulletin) "has 
general charge of the working conditions that make for efficiency 
and well-being of factory and office employees. The duties include 
the oversight of hospitals, lunch rooms, wash rooms, libraries, housing 
conditions, etc., and often require visits to the homes of the workers. 
The welfare supervisor must have a knowledge of industrial hy- 
giene, housing, education, club activities, and the general industrial 
environment." In some plants the welfare supervisor also performs 
most of the functions commonly assigned to an employment man- 
ager in the United States. (See Welfare Committee.) 

Welfare Supervisor. See Welfare Supervision. 

Welfare Work. A general term appHed to various kinds of 
voluntary effort on the part of employers "to improve, within the 
existing industrial system, the conditions of employment in their 
own establishments." It has been defined as including "all of those 
services which an employer may render to his work people over and 

[554] 



above the payment of wages." More specifically, it may include the 
provision of any or all of the following facilities or services: Wash 
rooms, rest rooms, lunch rooms, library, gymnasium, swimming pool, 
hospital and dispensary service, physical examinations, dental treat- 
ment, banking and loan service, housing, educational classes, play- 
grounds and other recreational facilities, music, lectures, and other 
entertainments. Properly speaking, welfare work is one of the two 
main fields or departments of personnel administration. In some 
large plants it is placed in direct charge of the personnel manager; 
but more often, perhaps, it is organized and managed by a special 
official known as a ''welfare manager" or ** welfare secretary," who 
in some cases performs the duties of an employment manager as 
well. Occasionally the term "service department" is used in desig- 
nation of the section devoted to welfare work, and the official in 
charge is called the "service director" or "service worker." Many 
trade unionists are distinctly hostile to welfare work ("helfare work" 
they often call it), regarding it as a form of paternalism and an at- 
tempt to substitute charity for justice in industrial relations. By 
others it is considered an attenuated and indirect form of profit 
SHARING. (See Welfare Supervision; Company Housing.) 

Welfare Worker. See Welfare Supervision. 

Western Labor Union. See Industrial Workers of the 
World. 

White. In connection with political affairs in contemporary 
Europe, this color is commonly associated with anti-democratic, anti- 
labor, or other reactionary movements, persons, etc. Thus we hear 
of the "white terror" in Hungary, the "white government" in Fin- 
land, the "white army" in Russia, etc. On the industrial side, the 
Catholic organizations in some countries — e.g., Italy — are dubbed 
"white" by the more radical elements. (See White Unions.) 

White-CoUar Scabs. A term sometimes used by manual 
wage-earners in designation of clerks, college students, and other so- 
called "brain workers" who volunteer to take the places of men out 
on strike. (See Golden Scabs.) 

White Collars. In American labor slang, the equivalent of 
the British term blackcoats — that is to say, middle-class salaried 
workers, as distinguished from manual wage-earners. 

White Strike. See Striking on the Job. 

[555] 



White Unions. In the Italian labor movement, the Unioni 
Cattoliche or Catholic unions are commonly called "white unions'* 
by members of the socialist and syndicalist organizations. They 
are made up mainly of agricultural workers, and are nationally 
federated in the Confederazione Italiana dei Lavoratori. 

Whitelist. A negative form of the blacklist, corresponding 
on the employer's side to the trade union fair list. In its simplest 
form, it is a list of workers in a specified city or district who are in 
favor with employers and who are given first choice on available 
jobs. As elaborated by some of the more radical employers' asso- 
ciations, it often takes the form of a central card index, giving the 
"record" of practically every skilled worker in the particular indus- 
try involved, compiled from information supplied by the individual 
members of the association. Such an index is in reality both a white- 
list and a blacklist in combination. "Other members of the asso- 
ciation who desire to put on extra hands send to the headquarters 
for a list of eligibles, or get a statement of the history and character 
of any applicant for work who has ever been employed in the same 
town; and the association is thus enabled to weed out 'troublesome' 
workmen by simply refusing to recommend them, or by merely 
stating what is known of their past careers." 

Whitley Councils. See Whitley Plan. 

Whitley Plan. In 191 6 the British Ministry of Reconstruc- 
tion appointed a Committee, under the chairmanship of Sir Charles 
Whitley, to investigate the problem of industrial relations between 
employers and employed and to make recommendations looking 
toward a more harmonious and equitable adjustment of such rela- 
tions. In March, 191 7, the Committee issued its first report, which 
proposed "the establishment for each industry of an organization, 
representative of employers and workpeople, to have as its object 
the regular consideration of matters affecting the progress and well- 
being of the trade from the point of view of all those engaged in it, 
so far as this is consistent with the general interest of the community." 
More specifically, the Committee recommended the formation of 
"joint standing industrial councils" (now often called "Whitley 
councils") in each trade or industry, organized by individual work- 
shops, by districts, and nationally, as follows : (i) Works committees, . 
representative of the management and of the workers in particular 
workshops or industrial establishments; (2) district councils, 
representative of the trade tmions and of the employers' associations 

[556] 



of particular industries in particular districts or local areas; (3) 
NATIONAL INDUSTRIAL COUNCILS, representative of the trade unions 
and of the employers' associations in particular industries for the 
entire country. This triple organization is intended to function 
according to a common principle and on lines of close common 
action. Joint industrial councils under the Whitley plan have 
now been established, on either an "interim" or a permanent basis, 
in some fifty major British industries. The general attitude of or- 
ganized labor to the Whitley plan is well indicated in the following 
memorandum, signed by five members of the original Whitley Com- 
mittee: ** While recognizing that the more amicable relations thus 
established between capital and labor will afford an atmosphere 
generally favorable to industrial peace and progress, we desire to 
express our views that a complete identity of interests between 
capital and labor cannot be thus effected, and that such machinery 
cannot be expected to furnish a settlement for the more serious con- 
flicts of interest involved in the working of an economic system 
primarily governed and directed by motives of private profit." (See 
Garton Foundation Report; Interim Industrial Reconstruc- 
tion Committees; Whitleyism.) 

Whitleyism. The system of joint industrial councils 
under the Whitley plan is sometimes thus designated, particularly 
by those who are opposed to the plan. 

Wholesale Cooperative Societies. In nearly all countries 
where consumers* cooperation has made marked progress, central 
wholesale societies have been organized by the retail cooperative 
associations for the purpose of doing away, in the interests of their 
members, with the profits of the "outside" wholesale trade. As 
perhaps the most conspicuous example, the British Cooperative 
Wholesale Society is a trading federation of the great majority of 
English cooperative retail stores, acting as the central agency from 
which they secure their supplies. Started on a modest scale in 1863, 
this society now has an immense capital and many thousands of 
employees. In addition to its purchases in open market, it carries 
on a large manufacturing and producing trade. It owns factories, 
mills, warehouses, mines, and land in various parts of Great Britain, 
tea plantations abroad, and the ships and wharfage by which its 
import trade is carried on. It is also the bank of the British cooper- 
ative societies. Net profits are returned to the individual retail 
societies as a dividend on purchases, and thence to the whole body of 
members. The English type of wholesale society is a federation of 

[557] 



independent retail societies, each remaining independent and in full 
control of its internal affairs and, through its delegates, of those of 
the wholesale society. Under the plan usually adopted in America, 
the wholesale society controls not only the wholesale but, in greater 
or less degree, the constituent societies, often delegating to them a 
large measure of local autonomy but retaining final control over 
them. 

Widows' and Orphans' Insurance. A form of social insur- 
ance that provides for the surviving dependents of deceased indus- 
trial workers. This form has been most highly developed in the state 
insurance systems of Germany and France. (See Mothers' Pen- 
sions.) 

Wildcat Strike. See Independent Strike. 

Wisconsin Apprenticeship System. Under a law passed by 
the Wisconsin state legislature in 191 5, all minors learning any trade, 
craft, or business who receive instruction as part of their wages 
must be under written contract and the contract approved by the 
state. This is to prevent employers from claiming apprenticeship 
for boys who really do nothing but common labor. These appren- 
tices are required to take four hours instruction in a school each 
week, on the theory of trade. A special Supervisor of Apprentice- 
ship, who sees to the enforcement of these provisions, is attached to 
the State Industrial Commission. 

Withdrawal Card. In most American trade unions, when a 
member in good standing retires from a local branch to become a 
foreman, to set up in business for himself, or to engage in some other 
trade, he is generally given a ** withdrawal card" (also called ''re- 
tiring card" and *" honorary card") which is valid during the "good 
conduct" of the person receiving it and entitles him to certain privi- 
leges should he enter a new union or reenter his old one. 

Wob. See Wobbly. 

Wobbly. The nickname by which members of the Industrial 
Workers of the World are most commonly known, particularly 
in the West. It is said to have originated with Harrison Grey Otis, 
editor of the Los Angeles "Times." Frequently a shortened form, 
"wob," is used in the same sense. The term "wobblyism" is some- 
times applied to the I. W. W. philosophy as a whole. (See Wobbly 
Halls.) 

^[558] 



Wobbly Halls. The local headquarters and meeting places 
of the I. W. W. organization are so nicknamed. (See Wobbly.) 

Wobbly ism. See Wobbly. 

Woman in Industry. As in the case of child labor, the 
later stages of the industrial revolution and the introduction of 
the FACTORY SYSTEM led to the employment of women on a large scale 
in industrial work, at wages and under conditions that often resulted 
in brutal degradation. But the worst evils in this connection have 
gradually been eliminated or at least mitigated by the passage of 
laws in nearly all countries regtdating the hours, wages, working con- 
ditions, etc., for women "gainfully employed." Such laws, particu- 
larly the various state enactments in this country, are still far from 
adequate. According to Commons and Andrews, "the working- 
woman's theoretical freedom of contract to dispose of her labor 
under whatever conditions she pleases has been restricted by the state 
through its police power. Such a limitation is rightfully applied 
to women workers as a class, because as workers they do not stand 
on equal footing with their employers in bargaining and because as 
women their health is more quickly injured by excessive hours of 
work. Furthermore, the community suffers if the health of any 
large number of women is endangered, for on the health of women 
depends the vigor of the race. The reasonableness of the range of 
employments included in the laws has been affirmed, and hours may 
now be limited to as few as eight in daytime work." The chief social 
or economic evils accompanying woman labor have been briefly stim- 
marized as follows: "First is the emplo3mient of married women, 
which usually means the neglect of the home, if not of yotmg children. 
Second, is the low, and often wholly inadequate, rate of remunera- 
tion. Partially dependent upon this, but introducing also serious 
economic consequences, is the competition of women with men, 
which means in many instances the underbidding of laborers with a 
high standard of life by laborers with a low standard of life, and 
which tends constantly to lower the plane of competition." The 
Report of the Federal Industrial Commission says: "It seems to 
be unanimously admitted that, barring a few exceptional cases, the 
wages paid to women are lower than the wages paid to men for similar 
work. The existence of such a state of affairs is a disadvantage to 
both men and women; a disadvantage to men because the competi- 
tion of women in present circvimstances tends to reduce the wages of 
men, and a disadvantage to women because it results in their not 
receiving fair compensation for labor performed." According to fig- 

[559] 



ures recently quoted by the United States Department of Labor, 
the employment of women in industry has increased fifty per cent 
since the beginning of the World War, and one in ten of all persons 
now "gainfully occupied" is a woman. (See Home Work; Para- 
sitic Industries; Domestic Service; Women's Bureau; Inter- 
national Congress of Working Women; Night Work; Hour 
Laws; Prohibited Employments; Factory and Workshop Acts; 
Family Wage; Minimum Wage Laws; Consumers' Leagues; 
Dilution op Labor; Pin Money Theory; Meantime Workers; 
Equal Pay for Equal Work.) 

Woman in Industry Service, See Women's Bureau. 

Woman's Labor League. A propagandist organization, on a 

national scale, of the women workers of Great Britain, now consti- 
tuting the women's section of the British Labor Party. Its efforts 
are devoted to obtaining direct representation of women in Parlia- 
ment and local government bodies, and advocating economic equality 
of the sexes. 

Women's Bureau. Created by Congressional enactment of 
June, 1920, as a statutory integral part of the United States De- 
partment OF Labor. A similar agency had been organized on a 
temporary basis in July, 19 18, as the ''Woman in Industry Service," 
for the purpose of developing standards and policies to insure the 
effective employment of women in essential war industries, while 
at the same time conserving their health and welfare; and after the 
armistice it rendered important service in the industrial readjustment 
of the country. This agency is now superseded by the permanent 
Women's Bureau, the duties of which, as stated in the creating act, 
are "to formulate standards and policies which shall promote the 
welfare of wage-earning women, improve their working conditions, 
increase their efficiency, and advance their opportunities for profitable 
emplo^Tnent." The Bureau has made a nimiber of important in- 
vestigations in various fields of women's labor, and published ntuner- 
ous reports, pamphlets, charts, etc. 

Women's International Union Label League. An American 

organization, formed in 1899, devoted particularly to supporting and 
extending the use of the union label. It also stands for the en- 
coirragement of union-made goods, the universal eight-hour day, 
EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK, early closiug and Sunday closing, and 
the sustaining of fair employers. Its membership includes not only 
women members of trade unions, but the wives and daughters of 

[560] 



unionists also. The League works in close cooperation with the 
American Federation of Labor, and is represented in the annual 
conventions of the Federation. 

Women's Trade Union League (British). See National 
Federation of Women Workers. 

Women's Trade Union League of America. See National 
Women's Trade Union League of America. 

Wop. American slang for an Italian of the common laboring 
class. (See Dago; Ginny.) 

Work Fund Theory. See Lump of Labor Theory. 

Work Sharing. As a palliative for unemployment, this is 
the process of distributing all available work as equally as possible 
among all the members of a trade during a slack period. Regula- 
tions in regard to "work sharing" are often formulated and enforced 
by trade unions. (See Turn List; Turnway Societies; Short 
Time; Lay-Off System.) 

Work -to -Rule Movement. As developed among European 
workers, the railwaymen in particular, this is an organized movement 
for "slowing down" industrial operations by adhering to the strict 
letter of certain safety rules and regulations of employers which, in 
the interests of speed, are usually ignored — such, for instance, as 
walking around the entire length of a freight train instead of slipping 
through between cars. It is, of course, a mild and perfectly legiti- 
mate form of SABOTAGE — one of the many variations of ca' canny 
and striking on the job — ^and a form against which employers are 
practically defenceless. 

Workers' College of Seattle. An organization for working- 
class education, founded in 19 19 by the Central Labor Council of 
Seattle. Under the direction of an educational committee of seven, 
appointed by the Council, regular courses are given in special eco- 
nomic and labor subjects, and these courses are supplemented by lec- 
tures, dramatic work, etc. Nominal fees are charged for some 
courses ; the other activities are financed by voluntary contributions 
and assessments on the local unions. 

Workers* Control. Probably no other term in the entire 
labor movement is so variously and loosely used as this, and certainly 
no other is so difficult of precise definition. At the outset, however,, 
much confusion will be avoided by limiting the word "control" to 

[561] 



its precise dictionary meaning — i.e., the power or means of direction, 
command, authority, restraint. This makes it possible to banish 
at once from the reakn of workers' control such "hyphenated'* 
inhabitants as joint industrial councils, shop committee sys- 
tems, EMPLOYEE REPRESENTATION plans, etc. Such experiments as 
these, whatever their other merits and advantages, obviously do 
not place the control of industry in the worker's hands. Even if 
workers' control be interpreted as a joint rather than an exclusive 
function, it necessarily involves participation not merely in the 
regulation but also in the direction of industry. In the larger and 
only legitimate sense, the term "workers' control" summarizes a 
new and revolutionary idea that has gradually come to the forefront 
of the labor movement in nearly all industrial countries- — the idea 
of a gradual shifting of industrial power from the employing or 
capitalistic class to the working or employee class. The demand 
which it embodies or represents is, according to G. D. H. Cole, "a 
demand that there shall be a transference of control from the present 
rulers of the economic system to the mass of the industrial workers, 
and an institution of democracy in industry as well as in the political 
sphere. Secondly, it is an assertion that this transference must be 
won in the main by the workers' own endeavors, and cannot be con- 
ceded from without. It is only by winning their own emancipation 
by their own efforts that the working classes will gain the power 
to direct industry when they have won it. In the third place, it is 
in effect a repudiation of those claims for industrial self-govern- 
ment which seek merely to entrench the existing industrial order 
by admitting the organized workers through the present Trade 
Union leaders to a limited and illusory share in the councils of indus- 
try, through joint bodies representing the employers and the working 
class. It does not necessarily repudiate joint machinery ; but it does 
most clearly repudiate the idea that such joint machinery can be 
an instrument of the sort of control which it desires to establish. 
In the fourth place, it is a demand by the workers for knowledge 
as the soiu-ce of power — knowledge of their position in the indus- 
trial order, and knowledge of the means by which alone they can 
asstime executive control." Workers' control, in this large sense, 
may be considered the main objective toward which the present-day 
labor movement is consciously or subconsciously directed. The 
paths are many and various, but the goal is essentially one. At the 
right lies the path of socialism or (as it is sometimes called) col- 
lectivism ; at the left is the path of syndicalism or revolutionary 
unionism; in the centre lies the path of guild socialism. But 

[562] 



there are millions of wayfarers who follow the main current of travel 
without holding to any beaten path. What they are all seeking, 
whether vaguely or clearly, is "a system fundamentally different 
from the capitalistic system, in that under it the complete control 
of industry will be placed in the hands of the workers themselves, 
to administer as a trust for the community." (See Labor Problem; 
Encroaching Control; Industrial Democracy; Workers' Con- 
trol IN Russia; Italian Labor Movement; Shop Steward Move- 
ment; Norfolk Idea.) 

Workers' Control in Russia. Soon after the revolution of 
October, 19 17, the workers in Russian factories, etc., took control 
of the establishments, in many cases displacing the management and 
technical staffs entirely and substituting in their stead works 
committees or factory committees made up wholly of workers* 
representatives. The effect of this step was in many cases disastrous 
to production. But with the rapid development of trade unions, 
following the revolution, the unions began to assume an increasing 
measure of control — both directly, by means of factory boards of 
management, in which the works committees and the former owners 
or directors participated with the trade unions; and indirectly, 
through a close linking-up with the governmental machinery in 
which the national control of industry is centralized. Thus there 
has been a gradual though fairly rapid evolution from local and 
direct workers' control to a broad centralized scheme of workers' 
administration. The works or factory committee is now mainly a 
local nucleus of the trade union, though it seems still to exercise 
some direct control over working conditions in the individual estab- 
lishment. 

Workers' Councils. Works committees and shop commit- 
tees are sometimes so called. More commonly, however, the term 
refers to a larger and looser form of proletariat grouping, which is 
political rather than economic in function, and whose purpose it is 
to form the bridge or transition means from a capitalistic to a pro- 
letarian government. Workers' councils, in this latter sense, were 
largely in control in both Russia and Germany, between the down- 
fall of the monarchy and the establishment of the republic. 

Workers' Education Bureau of America. Organized April, 
192 1, at a meeting in New York City attended by two hundred 
labor officials, trade unionists, teachers, and others interested in 
working-class education. The purpose of the Bureau, according 

[ 563 ] 



to its constitution, is "to collect and disseminate information rela- 
tive to efforts at education on any part of organized labor ; to coordi- 
nate and assist in every possible manner the educational work 
now carried on by the organized workers, and to stimulate the crea- 
tion of additional enterprises in labor education throughout the 
United States." The Bureau will act as a clearing-house of informa- 
tion ; an organization for publicity ; a register of teachers ; a laboratory 
on text-books, syllabi of courses, methods of teaching, etc. ; and an 
agency for the collection and coordination of statistics. 

Workers' Educational Association. This British organiza- 
tion to promote the higher education of adult workers in non- 
vocational subjects was formed (though under a different name) 
in 1903 — largely through the efforts of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Mans- 
bridge. It aims to bring within the reach of all who desire them 
tutorial classes and lectures on any branch of higher education 
which the students themselves may select. Its classes and lectiu-e 
courses, which are carried on mainly in the large industrial centres, 
are so arranged as not to interfere with the wage-earning occupations 
of the students. In the 19 19 report of the Association, its specific 
character and aims are thus set forth: "The association coordinates 
existing agencies and devises fresh means by which working people 
of all degrees may be raised educationally, step by step, until they 
are able to take advantage of the facilities which are and may be 
provided by the universities. It is a missionary organization working 
in cooperation with education authorities and working-class organi- 
zations. It is definitely unsectarian, non-political, and democratic. 
It is a federation consisting at present of 2,526 organizations, includ- 
ing 1,071 trade unions, trades councils, and branches; 384 coopera- 
tive societies and committees; 199 adult schools, brotherhoods, etc.; 
8 university bodies; 35 local education authorities; 100 working- 
men's CLUBS, institutes, etc.; 176 teachers' associations; 73 educa- 
tional and literary societies; and 328 various societies, mainly of 
workpeople. (These figures are exclusive of organizations affiliated 
to the Workers' Educational Association overseas.) It seeks to ful- 
fill its objects in the following piincipal ways: (a) By arousing the 
interest of the workers in higher education and by dii'ecting their 
attention to the facilities already existing; (b) by inquiring into the 
needs and desires of the workers in regard to education generally 
and by representing them to the Board of Education, universities, 
local education authorities, and educational institutions; (c) by 
providing, either in conjunction with the aforementioned bodies or 

[564] 



otherwise, facilities for the study of subjects of interest to the workers 
for which necessity arises; (d) by the pubHcation of Hterature and 
by such other means as from time to time may be considered expedi- 
ent. ' ' The Association — popularly known as the " W. E. A. ' ' — main- 
tains offices in London. (See Tutorial Class Movement.) 

Workers' Industrial Union of Australia. Formed in 1918, 
"to bind together in one organization all wage- workers in every in- 
dustry to achieve the purposes set forth in the preamble." The pre- 
amble declared that the primary purpose of the organization was to 
secure the "abolition of capitalistic class ownership of the means of 
production — whether privately or through the State — and the 
establishment in its place of social ovmership by the whole commun- 
ity." Four of the six clauses of the preamble are almost identical in 
phrasing with that of the American I. W. W. The Workers' Industrial 
Union is definitely committed to the One Big Union idea. (See 
Australian Labor Movement.) 

Workers' International Industrial Union. In 1908 the 
Industrial Workers of the World split into two distinct factions. 
One of these, known as the "Detroit group" or "Detroit I. W. W.," 
consisted of the milder or Socialist Labor Party elements in the 
original I. W. W. movement — those who favored political action 
as a temporary expedient, and who would "capture" the government 
by constitutional means rather than by direct action and the 
general strike. In 191 5 this faction adopted the title of Workers' 
International Industrial Union. Its members are often called "De 
Leonites," because of the fact that their leader for several years was 
Daniel De Leon, one of the founders of the original I. W. W. 

Workers' Internationale. See Internationale. 

Workers' University. This, the first systematic scheme of 
non-vocational working-class education undertaken by organized 
workers in the United States, was inaugurated in 19 16 by the Inter- 
national Ladies' Garment Workers' Union in New York City. The 
work consists largely in evening classes and lecture courses for mem- 
bers of the union and their families, carried on in various parts of the 
city. English is the favorite subject; but literature, economics, 
public speaking, gymnastics, etc., are also covered. A special class 
for business agents of the union, library facilities, reduced rates to 
theatrical entertainments, and an extension educational service for 
union locals, are other features. For the payment of the current 
expenses of the University and for the purpose of stimulating greater 

[565] 



desire for education on the part of its members, the International 
Ladies' Garment Workers' Union makes an annual appropriation of 
f 10,000. Inasmuch as it is from the union dues that this appropria- 
tion is made, the classes and all other activities are free to members. 
A similar "workers' university" has been established under the same 
union's auspices and control in Cleveland, Ohio. 

Workers' Welfare League of India. Established in 1918, as 
a means of representing in Great Britain the interests of Indian 
wage-earners. The League maintains permanent headquarters in 
London. 

Working Agreement. See Trade Agreement. 

Working Button. In certain occupations (as for example, 
among street railway employees, teamsters, chauffeiu-s, etc.) where 
the use of the union label or the union shop card is impracticable, 
the purpose of these latter devices is served by the so-called "working 
button," which is worn by the workers as a public notification that 
they are trade union members "in good standing." Such buttons 
are generally issued monthly by the unions concerned, the date and 
usually the color being changed each month. Also called "union 
button." (See Button Strike.) 

Working Card. Nearly all American trade unions issue to 
their members a card which serves as notice that its possessor is a 
union member in good standing, and which must be shown on re- 
quest to any business agent, shop steward, or other member of 
the union. Such cards are issued monthly, quarterly, or every six 
months, the color being usually changed each time. In some cases 
the working card contains a record of dues and assessments paid by 
the holder, and sometimes of his attendance at union meetings as 
well. Such cards are, as a general rule, issued by the local unions. 
In the case of the building trades, working cards in the larger cities 
are issued by the local building trades councils, which often make 
a specific charge for the cards — thus in effect licensing union members 
to work at their trades. (See Combination Card.) 

Working -Class Education. One of the most important 
developments of the past decade or so in the labor movement is the 
creation of a network of educational institutions by and for the 
workers themselves. This development should be carefully distin- 
guished from any form of piurely industrial education — its purpose 
is not technical but general. One promoter of working-class educa- 

[566] 



tion describes its purpose as "the emancipation of the workers from 
the control of the governing class over their education." Another 
pronouncement on the subject reads as follows: "Labor education 
must differ radically from education given at ordinary universities 
and colleges. Education in our universities and colleges is essentially 
capitalistic, in that it glorifies competition and seeks to produce an 
efficient individual. Education that may properly be called labor 
education is essentially socialistic, in that it glorifies cooperation 
and seeks to produce an efficient social and industrial order. For 
this reason the workers' college must arise to get away from old 
academic traditions and ideals, and must be a pioneer in education 
by its democracy, by its seeking to give students what they want, 
not what some academic group thinks they ought to have." The 
more important American and British institutions for working-class 
education are separately described in this book under their respective 
names (see cross references below). The following suinmary of con- 
tinental developments in this field is taken from an article by 
Henry de Man in "The New Republic" (March 2, 1921): "In Ger- 
many and in Austria the Arbeiterbildungsausschuss, the Parteischule, 
and the Gewerksschaftsschule probably represent the most systematic 
and powerful attempt at creating an instrument of proletarian 
culture that has ever been undertaken an3rwhere. Its pedagogical 
method, however, marks a less radical departure from that of official 
academic Germany than its clear theoretical formulation, in Marxian 
terminology, of the revolutionary aim of the labor movement in 
the field of human science would seem to call for. Perhaps the most 
comprehensive effort in that respect is that of the Belgian Centrale 
d'Education Ouvriere, which lays as much stress as German social 
democracy does on the cultural autonomy of the labor movement, 
but pursues an ideal of proletarian education which is less purely 
rationalistic and doctrinal, and pays more attention to individual 
character formation and to the ethical and aesthetic side of its work. 
. . . France's most recent and characteristic contribution to this 
movement is the Paris Universite du Peuple, recently inaugurated 
with an address by Elie Faure in which he claimed that 'proletarian 
education is not a continuation, but a beginning; it is a revolt against 
the decadence of bourgeois culture — the revolt of a class that, just 
because of its present ignorance, constitutes himianity's reserve of 
candor and curiosity, and promises to start it on a new quest for a 
new ideal.' Holland, Switzerland, Italy, Czecho-Slovakia, and the 
Scandinavian countries also have a system of labor education more 
or less copied from the German or Belgian model. :'\ . In Soviet 

[567] 



Russia, lastly, what Lunacharslsy^ Alexandra Kollontay, and the 
'Commissariat for Proletarian Culture' are tr^dng to achieve in the 
face of tremendous odds is a system of labor education that, if 
Russian conditions had allowed of its normal development previous 
to the revolution, would possibly have lessened some of the difficulties 
which now hamper Russia's democratic development." Many, 
though by no m_eans all, of these experiments in autonomous working- 
class education may be considered as part of the nucleus of a new and 
different social system. If this be true, as Mr. de Man rem_arks, 
''then they promise a revolution of pedagogy, an adjustment of its 
aims and methods to the demands of modem science, which the ex- 
isting system seems to be increasingly powerless to effect. Labor 
brings with it an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, and the labor 
movement directs this new desire towards an aim that is no longer 
individualistic and competitive, but altruistic. Hence the inspiration 
of a new ethical social aim, the lack of which is the fundamental 
cause of the shortcomings of the present school system, which trains 
for individual competition in a society where indi\ddual competition 
has ceased to be the way out for the masses." (See Workers' 
Educational Association; Central Labor College; Ruskin 
College; V/orkers' Education Bureau of America; Workers' 
University; United Labor Education Committee; Brookwood 
College; Boston Trade Union College; Rand School of Social 
Science; Trade Union College of Washington, D. C; Work- 
ers' College of Seattle; Department of Education of the 
Pennsylvania Federation of Labor; Mining Institutes; Aka- 
demie der Arbeit.) 

Working Conditions or Conditions of Employment. The 

chief concern in collective bargaining is the fixing of uniform 
wage scales and the determination of uniform "working conditions" 
or "conditions of employment." The latter phrases cover a wide 
field, which is difficult of precise delimitation. Of main importance, 
however, in this connection are non-unionist, apprenticeship, and 
demarcation questions; the various expedients for meeting unem- 
ployment; discipline, dismissals, and the handling of grievances; 
promotion and the choice and authority of foreman; methods and 
payment and the measurement of results; restrictions on technique; 



Working Conditions Service. A war-time agency of the 
United States Department of Labor, organized to suggest and 

[568] 



supervise plans for industrial safety, particularly in the production 
of munitions. It passed out of existence Jtme 30, 19 19. 

Working Hours in Germany. A national eight-hour day 
for all German industrial workers was ordered by the act of November 
23, 1918, on the basis of the decree of the council of Volksbeauftragten 
(people's commissioners) and put into effect for salaried employees 
in the same way by the law of March 18, 19 19. The maximum 
working day for agricultural workers was placed by the Temporary 
R-ural Workers' Statutes of December 20, 19 18, and January 23, 
1 9 19, in foru" months of the year at an average of eight hours daily, 
in another four months at ten, and in the remaining foiu" months at 
eleven hoiu-s. At the same time in all these cases a regulation of the 
REST PERIODS in the working day was brought about. To the already 
existing regulations against night work there was added through 
the decree of the council of Volksbeauftragten of December 23, 19 18, 
the important regulation against night work in all large bakeries 
and confectionary establishments. Especial limitations on the hoiu-s 
of labor, particularly for women and children, have been imposed 
in the case of certain hazardous industries. 

Working Hours in Russia. Under the Soviet labor code, 
the normal working day for manual workers in Russia is eight 
hours for day work and seven hotu-s for night work; while for em- 
ployees in offices it is six hours. The normal working day for persons 
under eighteen years of age is six hotu-s. In especially hard and 
DANGEROUS OCCUPATIONS the normal day for adult workers is six 
hours. No persons under eighteen years of age nor any women are 
permitted to work overtime or on night work. All hovus over the 
normal day are paid as overtime, and each shop is allowed to vote 
on the number of hours to be worked overtime. All wage earners 
are allowed a weekly iminterrupted rest of not less than forty-two 
horn's. Every worker is entitled to a two weeks' vacation with pay 
every six months, regardless of whether he has worked in one or 
several employments. Women are excused from work eight weeks 
before and eight weeks after confinement, and receive full pay during 
this period. (See Subbotnik.) 

Working Papers or Working Permits. See Employment 
Certificates. 

Working People's Non -Partisan League. A Minnesota or- 
ganization, formed in July, 19 19, " to unite members of organized and 
unorganized labor into a political league together with those in sym- 

[569] 



pathy with the interests of the common people, in order that repre- 
sentatives may be elected to office who will enact, interpret, and en- 
force laws that will serve the general welfare in accordance with the 
platform and programme adopted by this organization." It works 
in close association with the national Non-Partisan League. 

Working Rules. The definite stipulations of a national 
or international trade union in regard to such matters as the hours of 
beginning and ending work, classification of workers, minimum 
WAGES, pSLyment for overtime, age and number of apprentices to 
be taken, arrangements as to piece work, holidays to be allowed, 
notice to be given by employers or workmen terminating engagements, 
accommodations to be provided for meals and the safe custody of 
tools, allowances or extra payments, etc., etc. Such rules are often 
supplied to all members of the union in a printed "rule book," the 
provisions of which must be strictly observed. Also called "trade 
rules." (See By-Laws; Black Money; Grinding Money; Walk- 
ing Time; Dinner Money; Country Money.) 

Working Stiff. See Stiff. 

Workingmen's Clubs. In England, local societies for social 
intercourse, mutual helpfulness, mental and moral improvement, 
rational recreation, and other similar purposes. In 191 5 there were 
about 1500 such clubs in Great Britain, with a total membership of 
about half a million. Most of them are federated in a Working - 
Men's Club and Institute Union. 

Workingmen's Party of America. See Socialist Labor 
Party of North America. 

Workmen's Compensation. Under the common law of em- 
ployer's liability, the rights of a worker in securing damages for an 
industrial accident are much more closely restricted than those of 
an outsider. The unjust and demoralizing workings of this system 
led to a gradual recognition, beginning in Germany about 1879, that 
"industrial accidents presented not so much a legal as an economic 
and social problem, that the wear and tear of the himian machine, 
like the wear and tear of the inanimate machinery, should therefore 
be considered a necessary part of the cost of production, to be pro- 
vided for out of the price, before profits may be computed " (Rubinow : 
*' Social Insurance"). As a result, laws have been passed in nearly 
all European countries and by the Federal government and nearly 
all state governments of this country, which make the employer 

[570I 



automatically liable for at least a part of the economic loss caused 
by industrial accidents, regardless of initial fault or responsibility. 
In such laws the amount of compensation to an injured worker is 
generally determined within a maximum and minimimi limit by 
specified schedules of compensation fixed in the law, and are graded 
on a basis of a certain percentage of the loss or impairment of the 
injured worker's average weekly wage. Jury trials are either largely 
or wholly eliminated, and the compensation to which the worker is 
entitled under the law is usually determined by a board, commis- 
sion, or official either created or specified by the act. The principle 
of workmen's compensation (sometimes called "industrial accident 
insurance," and ** employees* compensation") is now so generally 
accepted that at least fifty foreign countries and provinces, including 
practically all of any industrial importance, have laws of this charac- 
ter. Beginning with the year 1909, compensation legislation has 
been enacted in forty-two states of the American union, besides the 
District of Columbia (public employees only), the territories of Alaska 
and Hawaii, and Porto Rico and the Philippine Islands. The rapid 
growth of American compensation legislation, involving, as it has, the 
almost simultaneous enactment of laws in a number of states, has 
operated to prevent the adoption of any one form of law as a type, 
so that, although a single fundamental principle underlies the entire 
group of laws of this class, its expression and application present 
great diversity of details in the different states. No fixed form of 
analysis or summary presentation can give in complete detail the pro- 
visions of the laws under consideration. They relate not only to the 
compensation of accidents, but to accident reporting, safety pro- 
visions, the enforcement of safety laws, the establishment of insur- 
ance systems, premium rates, investments, the scaling of payments 
in cases of certain forms of negligence or their increase under certain 
conditions, procedure in arbitration, forms of appeal, and a great 
variety of subjects on which it would be impossible to generalize, and 
which can be discovered only by a reading of the individual statutes. 
Compensation laws may be classified first as compulsory or elective. 
A compulsory law is one which requires every employer within its 
scope to accept the act and pay the compensations specified. Usually 
but not always, the employee must also accept the provisions of the 
act. An elective act is one in which the employer has the option of 
either accepting or rejecting the act; but, in case he rejects, the cus- 
tomary common-law defenses under employer's liability are abro- 
gated. In other words, the employer is subjected to a higher degree 
of liability if he does not elect. In most states the employee also 

lS7i] 



has the right to accept or reject the act. None of the compensation 
laws covers all employments. Usually agricultural labor, domes- 
tic SERVICE, employments that are casual in nature or are not con- 
ducted for the purpose of the employer's business, and in some laws 
non-hazardous employments, are exempted from the provisions of the 
act. It may be provided, however, that such employments may come 
under the provisions of the law through the voluntary acceptance of 
the employer or the joint election of employer and employee in these 
exempted classes, but the employer loses no rights or defenses if he 
does not accept, and to this extent the compensation law is a volun- 
tary one. Thus a law may be either compulsory or elective as to the 
employments covered, and voluntary as to other employments. 
Furthermore, an act may be elective as to private but compulsory 
as to public employments. Besides the distinction as to the com- 
pulsory or elective application of the law, it may require the employer 
coming under it, whether voluntarily or by compulsion, to insure his 
liability to ma,ke payments, or it may leave the matter of insurance 
to his own choice. Thus the state may make provision for the carrying 
of such insurance, and require all employers coming under the act to 
avail themselves of such provision; or the state fund may simply 
offer one of alternative methods. Again, the state may refrain 
entirely from such action, but require insurance in private companies, 
stock or mutual; and lastly, self -insurance may be permitted — i.e., 
the carrying of the risk by the individual, subject to such safeguards 
as the law may prescribe. Compensation for occupational diseases 
contracted in the course of emplo3niient is now a generally recognized 
factor in workmen's compensation laws. (See United States Em- 
ployees' Compensation Act; Contracting Out; Accident- 
Reporting Laws; Vocational Rehabilitation; Waiting Period; 
Berufsgenossenschaften.) 

Workmen's Insurance. See Social Insurance. 

Works. The British equivalent of an American plant — that 
is, an entire factory or other industrial establishment in a given 
locality, including all units and operations known separately as 
shops. 

Works Bonus. See Collective Bonus System. 

Works Committee or Works Council. In the European 
sense, (i) a body representative of all the workers in a single industrial 
WORKS or plant; or (2) a joint body representing both the workers 
and the management of a single industrial plant. In either case, the 
works committee is usually carefully differentiated in Europe from 

[572] 



the SHOP COMMITTEE, which is representative of the workers in only- 
one department or unit of an establishment. In the United States, 
such a differentiation is rarely observed, and the terms **shop com- 
mittee" and ** works committee" or "works council" (where the 
latter terms are used at all, which is seldom) generally denote the 
same thing — a committee representative of all the workers of an en- 
tire establishment. In England, a works committee may be either 
(i) a body elected by all the workers of an establishment, each de- 
partment or "shop" being treated as a separate constituency and 
often electing a number of members proportionate to its size; or 
(2) in a large works where shop stewards are nimierous, a body 
elected by the shop stewards; or (3) a body consisting of all the shop 
stewards of a single works. The main functions of a works com- 
mittee are to adjust grievances and differences arising in the course 
of daily work, to consider wage changes and working conditions, and 
in general to contribute the collective experience and judgment of 
the entire personnel of the establishment toward greater harmony, 
efficiency, and welfare throughout the works. Under the Whitley 
PLAN, the works committee is directly correlated with the district 

INDUSTRIAL COUNCILS and the NATIONAL INDUSTRIAL COUNCIL in 

each large industry, all questions relating to the industry in general 
(such as wages, hours, work, etc.) being dealt with by the district 
and national bodies. It is an important essential of the Whitley plan 
and of other European works councils schemes that both the workers 
and their representatives shall be members of trade unions. In 
other words, the recognition and cooperation of trade unions are 
fundamental to the works committee plan. In the United States, 
on the other hand, the shop or works committee system is most 
commonly adopted by employers who uncompromisingly oppose 
trade unionism; thus, whatever other merits it may have, the 
movement in this country is practically incapable of effecting any 
radical improvement in the economic status of the working class. 
Even in Europe a large section of the labor movement views the works 
committee plan as a sop or compromise, intended to delay or defeat 
true industrial democracy. Works committees or councils are 
often known as "factory committees" or "factory councils." The 
designation, "plant committee" or "plant council," is not uncommon 
in the United States. (See German Works Councils Law; Nor- 
wegian Works Councils Law; Industrial Council System in 
Belgium; Austrian Works Councils; Workers' Control in 
Russia; Arbeitsgemeinschaften; Councils op Exploitation; 
Bombacci Plan; Joint Shop Committee; Company Council.) 

[ 573 1 



Works Council. See Works Committee, 

Works Schools. In England, continuation schools or part- 
time SCHOOLS for young persons organized in the particular works 
where they are employed. Provision for compulsory works schools 
is contained in the British Education Act of 191 8. Works schools 
are much opposed by the majority of British trade unionists, who 
hold that workers' education should not be thus placed under the 
control of employers. 



Y 



Yard Committee -Man. See Shop Steward. 

Yeggs. See Migratory Labor. 

Yellow. An adjective often applied in an opprobrious sense, 
generally by those who are red, to moderate and opportunist 
groups, policies, etc., in the European socialist-labor movement; 
also to labor organizations initiated or fostered by employers. (See 
Yellow Union.) 

Yellow Internationale. See Internationale. 

Yellow Union. In the United States, this term is usually 
applied by trade unionists to a labor organization directly initiated 
or fostered by employers, or one which is considered to further the 
interests of employers. It is often used in this sense in the European 
labor movement also; though more commonly it denotes in Europe 
merely a conservative labor organization — one opposed to socialistic 
or other radical policies and devoted to improvements in working- 
class conditions without fundamental change in the economic and 
social structure. (See Company Union; Syndicat; French Labor 
Movement; Red Union.) 

Young Communist Internationale. Before the war what 
was commonly known as the "Young Socialist Movement," com- 
prising the younger elements in most socialist parties, was organized 
internationally in a separate "International Secretariat" (established 
1907), which affiliated with the International Socialist Bureau 
in 19 10. In December, 19 19, the left-wing elements among the 
"Young Socialists" met in an international congress at Berlin and 
constituted an International League of Young Communists, usually 
known as the "Young Communist Internationale." This organiza- 
tion now includes the greater part of the Young Socialist movement 
in most countries. It is subject to the control of the Communist 
Internationale and its executive committee. 

[575] 



Young Person. As used in British factory and workshop 
ACTS, public health legislation, etc., this term denotes a person be- 
tween the ages of fourteen and eighteen. One who is less than 
fourteen years old is, in the legislative sense, a "child"; while one 
above the age of eighteen is an ** adult." 

Young Socialist Movement. See Young Communist Inter- 
nationale. 

Yuai Kai. See Japanese Labor Organizations. 



Zentralarbeitersekretariat (Central Workers' Secretariat). 
See Arbeitersekretariat. 

Zentralverband der Bulgarischen Gewerkschaften (Cen- 
tral Federation of Bulgarian Trade Unions). The national organiza- 
tion of Social Democratic unions in Bulgaria, with an affiliated 
membership of about 28,000. The communist movement, on the 
other hand, claims 40,000 trade unionists. 

Zentralverbande (Centralized Unions). The separate national 
organizations of affiliated Gewerkschaften or Social Democratic 
UNIONS of Germany are so called. The thorough-going centraliza- 
tion policy of German trade unionism is well shown by the fact that 
the approximately eight million members of the Gewerkschaften are 
nationally organized in only about fifty-two Zentralverbande. These 
latter are not merely national federations, but close amalgamations, 
along both craft and industrial lines, and including men and women, 
skilled and unskilled workers, alike. The Zentralverbande are affili- 
ated in the Allgemeiner Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund. 

Zimmerwald Movement. In September, 191 5, an international 
congress of socialist-labor groups opposed to the war met at Zimmer- 
wald, Switzerland, upon an invitation of the Italian Socialists. Reso- 
lutions of an uncompromising anti-war character were passed, and a 
permanent Commission established. At a later meeting of the 
same groups, held in April, 19 16, the movement developed a decided 
revolutionary tendency. The Commission met in Stockholm the 
following year and decided that a new Internationale must be 
formed, the result of this decision being the Communist Interna- 
tionale, organized at Moscow in March, 1919. 

Zone Clearance System. To facilitate the work of the 
United States Employment Bureau in its present function as a 
NATIONAL clearing HOUSE FOR LABOR, the Continental area of the 
United States (exclusive of Alaska) has been divided into thirteen 
** labor clearance zones," corresponding in the main to the various 

[577] 



Federal Reserve Bank districts. As soon as funds are made avail- 
able for the purpose it is proposed to put a paid zone clearance officer 
in charge of each of these districts. It is assumed that each state 
will have its own system of labor clearance, and will supply its im- 
mediate needs from its own resources of workers and of industrial 
opportimities. The process of labor clearance within the state is 
supposedly a continuous one, day by day, if not hour by hour. Any 
surplus of either opportunities or applicants remaining undisposed 
of at the close of the day is then to be reported to the zone clearance 
officer and, so far as it is not promptly disposed of by him within the 
zone, is to be reported to the national clearing house at Washington. 
The duties of zone clearance officers involve merely the coordination 
of the activities of the Federal directors for the various states within 
their zones, and do not extend to soliciting opportunities for employ- 
ment, recruiting workers, or placement work of any kind. The 
matching of the labor surplus against the "labor wanted" takes 
place daily within each zone, while inter-zone or national clearance 
will be effected by the national clearing house at Washington on the 
basis of weekly or more frequent reports of "labor surplus" or 
"labor wanted." The zone clearance officers are also required to 
report weekly, or more frequently, the condition of the labor market 
in all parts of their respective zones. While the zone clearance officer 
usually communicates only through the national office at Washington, 
he is permitted in case of emergency to commimicate directly with 
the zone clearance officer of an adjoining zone v^dth a view to effecting 
directly and without loss of time the adjustment of labor surplus 
and demand as between such two or more zones. 



THE END 



